Stories

President Dick announced very sad news that Randy Wilman's son had passed away on February 18, 2019.

A moment of silence was observed.

Speaker-Dan Kolander Topic: Water to Thrive

The Iowa Most Team was welcomed back. This week is National Engineer Week, Act of Kindness Week and Today is Best Friends Day. Casey Cook was welcomed back!

The 30 Anniversary Celebration will be held Thursday Feb. 21, 2019 at the Kirkwood Room form 5:30 pm-7:00 pm. April 1, 2019 will be the annual miniature golf tournament fundraiser. Shelter House Book Sale March 30th.

Karen Franklin will be collecting books at the club the next several Tuesdays.

Hazel ask for suggestions for a grant that can be written for the 2019-2020 year.

Casey and Kate are moving to a condo. Next Tuesday will be a volunteer effort to help pack books at their home. Casey announced that the Community Foundation Gold Tournament is May 20.

Happy Bucks: Tom Novak shared that the Iowa Most Team worked to solve and problems that arise.

Mark Patton is happy to be in Bowl for Kids Sake Bowl Athon. He would greatly accept pledges.

Chris Knapp spoke about

the GMS at West Liberty and how we are dealing with losing membership and lack of funds. There are aprx. 13 clubs not giving to the Foundation. Jim Peterson reminded everyone that the deadline for District Grants is June1, 2019. The grants should be turned in sooner, in case there needs to be additional information added to the application.

The 2018 RYLA and World Affairs Seminar attendees gave a presentation moderated by Nancy Pacha. Former RYLA attendee, Jamie Porter, also discussed the impact RYLA has made on his life since graduating from high school and college.

Christine Nebiss, a member of an indigenous people of Saskatchewan, Canada who is currently a resident of Williamsburg, IA, talked about environmental and native sovreignty issues having to do with the Dakota Access Pipeline.

The Sept. 13 speaker was Thomas D. Farnsworth, attorney with Kinnamon, Kinnamon, Russo, Meyer, KIeegan and Farnsworth. His topic was about criminal sentencing and the criminal justice system in Johnson County.

Our May 31 speaker was Jim Blessman of Blessman Ministries who talked about his South African ministries and various projects including a water project that was done partially with a Rotary Global Grant. Picture: Sarah Aikin, Jim Blessman, Beth Blessman all of Blessman Ministries

About 24 players representing AM and Downtown Rotary Clubs putted their way to a great time at Colonial Lanes Mini-Golf Course in the First Annual AM Rotary Mini-Golf Tournament. This event substituted for our April Month Opener.

The February 2 meeting featured a presentation by John Schultz about the history of the violin, or "400 Years of History in 20 Minutes or Less." He and Lara Celeghin also started out by playing a violin duet.

Our speaker was Dr. Resiyme Oral, Director of the ACES 360 Program at the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics who talked about how adverse experiences in childhood impact lifetime health and well-being.

Erin Probst talked about her Youth Exchange year in Chile and the Mustons from the IC Noon club video taped our club members wishing the Noon Club a happy 100th birthday. Gregorio Sanchez said goodbye to the members of AM Rotary as he is headed back to Mexico.

The AM Rotary Club met at North Ridge Pavilion in Coralville for an evening meeting to celebrate our Year Ender. Mark Patton, gave his farewell presentation as the Club's President and then turned the gavel over to Myrene Hoover.

Aria Widyanto and Tom Markus

The speakers at the May 26th meeting were Tom Markus and Aria Widyanto talking about the Young Southeast Asian ambassadorial fellow program sponsored by the International City/County Management Association and the White House and Mr. Widyanto's experiences with this program. Mr. Widyanto is from Jakarta, Indonesia.

The May 5th meeting featured a number of Rotaractors from the Iowa City area who spoke about what is going on in the newly reconstituted Rotaract Club in Iowa City. The session was moderated by Usha Balakrishnan, the District 6000 Rotaract chair and a member of the Iowa City Noon Club.

At the meeting on March 31 our speakers were Jenifer Secrist and Emma Guthart who talked about the One Nation Education foundation Jenifer started following the earthquake disaster in Haiti and the trips they have taken subsequently with many supporters to help rebuild homes and schools, provide safe water, and give children a faith--based summer camp experience.

At the March 24 meeting we introduced our three newest AM Rotarians: Bree Neyland, Amanda McFadden, and Ryan Dye. Casey Cook presented a long term plan for funding many of our grant and other charitable projects by endowing AM Rotary through contributions to the Johnson County Community Fund. We also held a brief Club Assembly to gather information about the committees and activities that each member would like to participate in for the 2015/16 Rotary year.

The speaker for the Feb. 24 meeting was Bill Assouline, a professor in the College of Medicine, and also an engineer. He is one of the founders of NanoMedTrix, a private company which broadens theoretical concepts beyond research to practical applications.

The October 28th meeting featured the induction of a new member and a talk by Alexandra Drehman, Executive Director of the Johnson County Historical Society, about the many venues and events managed by this organization.

The meeting of October 7 featured a presentation by Rick Dobyns on the Local Option Sales Tax and other issues on the November local ballot. Dobyns in a member of the Iowa City City Counsel and a member of AM Rotary.

Announcements: Thanks to all those involved in planning our Community Grants event last week, it was our best ever!

World in a minute – Jack Tank spoke about Grenada, which has just one Rotary club. Grenada is an island country consisting of Grenada itself and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea. Grenada is located northwest of Trinidad and Tobago, northeast of Venezuela, and southwest of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Grenada is also known as the "Island of Spice" because of the production of nutmeg and mace crops of which it is one of the world's largest exporters. Its size is 344 square kilometres (133 sq mi), with an estimated population of 110,000. Its capital is St. George's. The national bird of Grenada is the critically endangered Grenada dove.

District conference is just six weeks away, and members are encouraged to sign up for at least one of the three major dining events. We prefer you sign up manually (print out and mail in the registration form) instead of digitally due to the extra processing expense, but please do one or the other. Friday’s lunch will feature Bob Bowlsby, Saturday’s lunch will showcases kids and Friday evening’s dinner will feature Aaron Thomas. Please volunteer to help out if you can.

There will be a board meeting this Thursday at 6:45 at Waterfront Hy-Vee.

45 people from all over the district attended a grant management seminar last week.

Program: Our six Interactors (three from City High and three from West) were unable to attend due to the morning ice storm, but Nancy Pacha filled in with help from Casey Cook.

Interact gives students ages 12-18 the chance to make a real difference while having fun. Every Interact club carries out two service projects a year: one that helps their school or community and one that promotes international understanding.

Clubs meet at least twice a month and are sponsored by their local Rotary club. Interact helps young people:

•connect with community leaders

•develop leadership skills

•make international connections

•discover more opportunities to connect with Rotary, including Rotaract, RYLA, and Youth Exchange

On March 29 at West High School will be the third annual Iowa MOST benefit fundraiser. Casey said there is some remarkable talent on display there. Iowan Frank Canady (son of lead surgeon John Canady) will be one of the speakers.

RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) was also discussed in some depth. Rotary clubs in Districts 5970 and 6000, throughout Iowa sponsor students to participate in this 6-day leadership conference.

RYLA is a life-changing leadership training program for young men and women where leadership skills and principles are learned, developed and enhanced in an atmosphere of trust and respect. The purpose of RYLA is to encourage and assist current and potential youth leaders in methods of responsible and effective leadership. Many past RYLArians from around the country have said, “It was the best week of my life!”

The RYLA Conference for 2015 will be held July 26-31, 2015 at Grinnell College. Registration for 2015 Iowa RYLA begins December 1, 2014 and closes April 30, 2015.

Sue Cronin-reminder about sign up sheet for Community Grants event on Feb 26th

Nancy Pacha-Dance for Humanity at Old Brick on Sunday, Feb 15th

Liz-Youth Exchange has a spot in Solon for an exchange student. A host family is needed

Jack-District Conference-April 16-18 at Marriott. Volunteers are needed to be greeters.

Speaker: Mel Schlacter of the Iowa River Friends

Mel is a wine maker and a judge. Iowa River Friends was formed April 2013. It is a volunteer organization. Dues for a family are only $15. The purpose of the organization is to bring folks together up and down the Iowa River Watershed to improve, protect and enjoy the river. It is hard to care about the river when you do not have a relationship with the river. The Iowa River Friends want to promote a relationship with the river.

River Call is a program for 4th graders to spend the day getting to know the river.

Some issues the organization is working on:

Water Quality-Talking with municipalities & AG products to staunch chemicals

Educate about Urban runoff

North Liberty is working to require construction companies to leave top soil for new construction.

Questions:

Are they involved in any river bank clean up projects? Yes, 1-2 times per year from Sturgis Ferry to Hills. It was suggested that it might be good to involve the rotary clubs along the river.

Quality issues, is it ok to swim or fish in the river? Only eat bottom dwellers. Who is dumping in it? Occassional dumping by the concrete plant in Coralville, but mostly Urban run-off contributes 10-20% and farmers 80%.

Lawn treatments by residential home owners also contributes to quality issues. Homeowners should consider other types of grasses.

What about hog confinements? The do more injection of waste instead of spreading on fields.

Why do farmers continue to dump into the river? Not sure, but we need to educate the farmers and encourage a relationship with the river.

RI President-elect K.R. “Ravi” Ravindran recently announced his presidential theme for 2015-16, “Be a Gift to the World,” at the opening session of the International Assembly in San Diego, California.

Rotarians in the news: Dave Parsons for an Iowa City Press-Citizen column and Jean Knepper regarding an elementary art project.

Please use the consolidated signup for dish duty, scribe or World in a Minute.

World In A Minute: Tom Langenfeld spoke about Benin, Africa. It’s officially the Republic of Benin, bordered by Togo to the west, by Nigeria to the east and by Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. A majority of the population live on its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin, part of the Gulf of Guinea in the northernmost tropical portion of the Atlantic Ocean. The capital of Benin is Porto-Novo, but the seat of government is in Cotonou, the country's largest city and economic capital. Benin covers an area of approximately 115,000 square kilometers (42,000 sq mi), with a population of approximately 9.98 million. Benin is a tropical, sub-Saharan nation, highly dependent on agriculture, with substantial employment and income arising from subsistence farming. It has just one Rotary club, whose priority is to eliminate malaria in its country.

On February 26 we will have our Community Grants Awards event. Tickets are $20 each, it will be at 6:30 p.m. in the Kirkwood room and feature French food.

On January 22 there will be an Executive Committee meeting, and on February 14 our district planning committee will meet.

Bowl For Kids’ Sake, the annual charitable event for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Johnson County, will be held February 28-March 1.

Speaker: Brad Friedhoff, former naturalist for the Johnson County Conservation Board spoke

About the interlocking trail systems in Johnson County. Three historic trails are Dillion's furrow, the Mormon handcart trail and Lane trail, used for the Underground Railroad.

Trail development began in earnest in 2000 when the Johnson County conservation board adopted fist trail plan, and in 2006 formed its first trails advisory committee.

Starting this year, all “separated” trails will be managed by the Johnson County Conservation Board, while all others will continue to be managed by Johnson County Secondary Roads.

Multi-use trails and water trails are also being considered in addition to the usual walking and biking trails.

There will be a Community Grants meeting after next week’s General Membership meeting.

The date of the Community Grants event is February 26 – more on this later.

John Ockenfels said that one of the things we’re trying to do this year is track our alumni of youth exchange and group exchange programs to invite them to become Rotarians.

Deb PVA introduced our speaker/topic – the District 6000 Conference next year. It will be hosted by our club due to DG John Ockenfels being one of our members. Deb and Mike Messier are co-chairs of the conference, which will be held April 16-18 next year.

Nancy Pacha revealed that Home Hospitality is being revived as a Friday night event. It has been offered sporadically at previous conferences – it involves inviting Rotarians from other clubs into your house for a meal. More than half a dozen of us have already volunteered.

Chris Knapp’s favorite event is the flag ceremony which is a procession of inbound and outbound exchange students carrying their native flags.

Jim Peterson noted that at the lunches and dinners, each table saves a space for exchange students, of which we have roughly fourteen inbound and ten outbound. They will be attending sessions, staffing display tables and talking about their countries. They will be the 15 to 17-year-olds wearing the badge jackets.

Jim also noted that the rotary grant program projects are highlighted during the conference – few Rotarians are familiar with their scope.

The traditional House of friendship will have tables about countries, projects and vendors, probably in the foyer of the Marriott.

The first day of the conference will be Thursday April 16. Instead of a golf tournament there will be some informal group activities that are expected to include a beer and wine tasting.

On Friday the official conference begins. There's a two hour luncheon, which will probably be one of the two most-attended events (along with Saturday’s luncheon). Bob Bowlsby, a former IC Rotarian and U of I Athletic Director, will be Friday luncheon’s speaker – his topic will be why it's important that kids be involved in community service projects outside school.

Saturday will be similar to Friday except that it will include a breakfast. Saturday's luncheon speaker will be Priyanka Rao, a phenomenal young woman that many IC Rotarians may be familiar with. Also on Saturday we're looking at presenting some panel sessions discussing topics encompassing more than just Rotary.

Saturday night Aaron Thomas will be the keynote speaker, the son of the Aplington Parkersburg coach instrumental in recovering from the tornado. Preucil School will be celebrating its 40th anniversary with some entertainment as well.

None of the events will be black tie optional event this year – rotary casual is the attire.

Sit at a table with people you don't know if you want to learn something about other clubs, and meet people you'll continue to see for years.

District Conference is more than annual meeting - it's a party to celebrate John’s year as District Governor. They are not for Rotary elite or directors and officers, but for everyone.

We're anticipating 400 people attending at least a portion of the activities, including Rotarians from other districts.

Information about the conference will be continually updated on the district 6000 website.

Myrene Hooved presided due to Mark Patton's absence. His holiday travels have been altered because of a wayward appendix.

Jack Cameron reported on who was there, make-ups and his usual info. Jim Peterson and Andreas had guests. Jack reported on Monday's gift wrapping at Coral Ridge Mall Monday afternoon/evening. $513 was raised through those efforts. His suggestion was we should try to schedule on Christmas Eve next year.

Mike Messier filled in for Jack Tank - Where in the World is Rotary? The Cayman Islands consist of 3 islands - Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac. They cover 102 square miles in the Caribbean. The Caymans are the 5th largest financial center in the world. There are 3 Rotary clubs, 2 on Grand Cayman; their district is 7020.

Randy Willman didn't have anyone in the news, but had the scoop on Santa Claus. Santa knows where all the bad girls live.

There's a grant recipient meeting on Thursday evening, 2/26, at the Kirkwood Room. There's also a meeting in January, but I didn't catch that date for sure.
Several folks had happy bucks.

Thank you letters were circulated from the Children's Musuem and Table to Table.

Several carols were led by Chris Knapp.

Deb Pullin Van Aukin led the telling of special Christmas memories by all members present.

Jack reported that all the P’s were in attendance, and Mark Patton commented, “P’s be with us.”

Randy Willman reported that Myrene Hoover and Dave Parsons were both Rotarians in the News last week.

The District Conference Planning Committee will be meeting after this morning’s meeting - there seems to be a run on rooms with two queens in them.

The Neighborhood Centers of JC sent a thank-you note for the coats project event at the Children’s museum.

Sue Cronin says there will be a meeting of the Grant Committee the evening of February 26 at the Kirkwood room.

Pam Ehly announced the name of the book we will be donating to ICCSD schools in the name of our speakers next year; Every last Drop – bringing clean water Home.

Roger says bus your dishes early and please do not rinse them in right-hand sink.

Joan Garrity passed around the gift-wrapping signup sheet for next Monday at Coral Ridge Mall – she can use a few more volunteers.

Nenu & Jim Peterson discussed our Global Grant Project – a Bathroom/Well/Kitchen for an indigenous community in rural Paraguay. Rotarians were able to review the blueprint

Please check your personal information on the web site and let Elaine know of any updates.

Frank Juvan reported at length about Estonia (World in a Minute) – it’s similar to Lithuania and Latvia, but different. Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Lake Peipus and Russia.

Nut Sales: Brian reported that we sold 273 tins of nuts, and the net funds raised are $2,692.

Speaker:

Deb PVA introduced Patti Fields to talk about volunteering opportunities through the United Way. Patti is VP of Community Impact & Engagement, United Way of Johnson & Washington counties, United Way Volunteer Center.

Iowa City has been among the top 5 mid-sized cities nationally for volunteering for the last 5 years.

Volunteers improve the quality of life for everyone. When thinking about volunteering for the first time, ask yourself; What interests me? What skills do I have to share? How much time do I have to commit? Where to volunteer, and how?

Volunteering as a family is becoming more common – it’s a great way to spend quality family time, strengthens bonds and gives each an opportunity to lead.

They have an online Seasonal and Winter Giving Guide – our local United Way collects all of the needs from their member organizations and puts them out in a guide. Days of Service and Community Events is a great way to start – festivals and memorial events always need help.

There are also health benefits of volunteering – good for your mind and body, gives you a sense of purpose, there’s a happiness effect, and it connects you to others. United Way serves as a connector between agencies and volunteers – if there is any screening done, it’s provided by the agency itself.

Thanks to Peggy Doerge for hosting the well-attended Monday Opener chili supper last night. She reported a net gain of two bottles of wine on top of all of the empties. Deb Ockenfels won the horrible Christmas sweater competition as the only entrant, but she’d have won anyway.

Joan Garrity passed around the gift-wrapping signup sheet for Monday, December 22 at the Coral Ridge Mall.

Sue Cronin needs help planning the AM Rotary grant recipient event in February, there will be a short meeting after today’s membership meeting.

Brian Adamec says the second order of toffee almonds will be in next week. We’ll send 15 kids to RYLA training next year, due primarily to Bryan’s fundraising activities. 70% of the income from nut/gift sales came from our own members.

Roger says sign up for dishwashing duty! And use the correct sheet this time.

Election Results – Deb Dunkhase was somehow unanimously selected (before any voting occurred) to be our President-Elect – her term will begin July 1, 2016. We are told there were no irregularities in the process. New directors who will be starting in July: Dick Huber, Deb Ockenfels, Phil Peterson. Congratulations to all!

The Coralville-North Corridor club will have a “Breakfast with Santa” event from 7:30 to 10:30 this Saturday at the Coralville Marriott– tickets are available from Mark Patton.

There will be an Executive Committee meeting one week from today (12/16) at 6:45 a.m.

Chris Knapp said there was a great reception and gratitude expressed at the dictionary distribution at Shimek school last week.

Deb Ockengels says that if any club has excess funds, the Keokuk club has 22 kids who would like to go to RYLA training next year.

Andreas Soemadi announced a fundraising website for space exploration that allows donors to name features on Mars; www.uwingu.com.

Rotarians in the News: Rick Dobyns was quoted, and Casey Cooke had something to say about the three historic (?) cottages that have been in the news recently.

The Bur Oak Land Trust is a local non-profit organization committed to the preservation and enjoyment of natural areas in Johnson County and nearby areas in Iowa. These include prairies, woodlands, wetlands, and sites of historic, archeological or scenic interest.

The Trust currently maintains and preserves eight local natural areas, for the enjoyment and education of the public, and holds 13 conservation easements.

The Bur Oak Land Trust is a land trust which accepts donations of land from residents and landowners who want their natural areas to be in the public trust, available for present and future generations.

The Trust can also arrange and hold conservation easements, facilitate transfers of land from private to public ownership, and advise land owners on donations, sale, and preservation of their land.

The Bur Oak Land Trust cooperates with other groups which promote and preserve natural areas, including the Johnson County Conservation Board, the Johnson County Soil and Water Conservation District, the Iowa City Parks and Recreation Department, the Iowa Nature Conservancy, the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, and the Iowa Environmental Council.

They are a member of the national Land Trust Alliance, and accredited by the Land Trust Accreditation Commission. The Trust currently maintains and preserves eight local natural areas, for the enjoyment and education of the public, and holds 13 conservation easements. All properties are open to visitors/skiers/fisherpersons except for hunting (by permission only).

Scotland is on the island of Great Britain and is similar in size to South Carolina. Scotland has 4700 Rotary members. The income from Scotch whiskey is about $800,000,000 per year. Scotland has a population of 6.57 million sheep on 14800 farms.

Rotarians in the News: Rick Dobbs was in the paper this morning, subject unknown.

Announcements: Mark Patton announced that the club has received two cards of thanks. The first is from Louise Novak for notes and gift cards sent by club members. The second is from the Student Family Advocate at Tate High School, thanking us for coats for students. Brian Adamec will order more nuts, with the profits support youth programs that we sponsor. A scribe is needed for next week. Myrene sent around a roster and asked us to make corrections to it. Peggy Doerge invited all to her house for chili supper on Monday, December 8. She also sent around a sign up sheet for the supper. Joan sent around a sign up sheet for gift wrapping at the Coral Ridge Mall on December 22 from 4:00-10:00.

Program: What Jazzes You Up: Casey Cook interviewed John Schultz, a new member who is a professional violin repairer with a shop in Cedar Rapids.

Professional violinists attempt to find a violin to be their voice. $15.9 million is the record amount paid for a violin.

John has played on some of the finest violins in the world. He feels that the value of an instrument comes from excellent builders, the wood, the varnish on the wood, and the overall quality comes from the instrument itself and from the allure.

The wood of a Stradivarius may come from very fine wood that has been aged finely. The wood actually may reach back to 300-400 years.

John’s musical background is that he is a “jock” turned violinist. He joined his high school orchestra and began to practice violin 6-7 hours a day after he injured his knee.

After grad school in Wisconsin, he came to Iowa City and has taught for the University and for the Preucil School of Music.

Given the opportunity to be district governor for Rotary, he would want to let people know what Rotary is and how great it is. He and his wife, Rebecca, have been members since 2010. He enjoys the give and take of a conversation among Rotarians. He enjoys the good stuff of Rotary that is also the fun stuff: you can never give too much.

Sometimes in violin repair, the only answer is triage. Teachers in the public schools need efficient and effective repair. Cirque du Soleil had a violin with a long crack in it that John repaired.

At an art museum in Taiwan, that John visited because of his Rotary connection, the curator showed and allowed him to play his collection of almost-priceless violins: an opportunity not even offered to Yoyo Ma!

His little daughter is working through the early books of Part I of the Suzuki method…which is not about teaching the violin, it is about how to work hard, follow through, develop skills, to be able to do whatever the young student will want to do in life. John spends 45 minutes every day one-one with his little daughter.

In answer to a question about violin care, in northern Italy where fine violins have long been made, the instruments did well despite the cold winters and hot summers of the area. Today, in his shop, violins receive better care with climate control, 35% humidity. Violins that are built well, made of wood that was aged well, stand the test of time. In response to another question had to do with what makes a bow so expensive, John said that it depends on who made it (specific artisans), and that it takes about 50 hours to build a bow. In addition, the wood used to make bows, pernambuco, is becoming rare and thus expensive. Metal parts are gold or silver. A violin takes 400 hours to make, while a cello takes 500 hours.

Violin prices are set at auction prices and the price maintains over time. An investment in a violin can be an incredible place to put money.

Violins that John sells are handmade and hand varnished in northern China. Hope is that these would last 15-20 years.

The audience is requesting a return to talk and a violin performance by John!

Rotarians in the News: Mark, Habitat; Dave, Halloween; Ann Langenfeld, Dave Johnson, ad for U of I Dental School

Announcements: Tom Novak’s update on Louise is that she will have a very long chemo process. Their two daughters will alternate care over the coming weeks. One suggestion is that gas cards for the girls’ transportation would be a useful gift.

9 AM Thursday: review goals at Myrene’s .

4:30-6PM Thursday: party for children meeting at the Children’s Museum, with coat distribution from 5:30 until 7:30 PM.

FAMSCO today: 9 orders of coats to be delivered, over 400 delivered yesterday and more than 300 to be delivered today.

Where in the Rotary World sign-up next week, the more obscure the better.

Hedy Lamarr, the actress, was also an inventor, in an area related to wifi.

Foundation Dinner: information about Ponsetti method of clubfoot surgery will be presented at the upcoming Rotary International annual convention in Sao Paulo.

Preprogram: Liz Nichols presented on the country of Germany, population 80.6 million people, 4th largest world economy. After the US, Germany has the highest rate of immigration in the world.

Program: Sophie Horstmann, our foreign exchange student is from Germany. Her dad is German and her mother is Japanese. Bielefeld, Northrhine-Westfalia is her home. Sophie has been attending experimental schools in Germany. At younger ages, the school had no formal classrooms, and the students called the teachers by their first name. Classes last one full year, begin at 8:30 AM and end at 4:00. Sophie has traveled and attended classes in several countries. She is a dedicated traveler and hopes to visit all the continents at least once. She loves travel and has been taking English since 3rd grade. She mentioned that most German kids think that New York is the capital of the US. Regarding the Midwest: “No one knows about it,” and her mom calls it Potato Land. Sophie speaks German, Japanese, and English fluently and she has studied French for four years. The strangest thing here in her opinion is our winter…much harder than German winter. Sophie looks forward to seeing San Francisco. Most different for Sophie has been the American school system.

Kazakhstan is bordered by the Caspian Sea, Uzbekistan, Russia and China. The country is 4x the size of Texas but one half the population. This area was a testing ground for nuclear weapons and has many areas that are not inhabited. The country is part of Rotary district 2430. There is only one club in Kazakhstan which is in the city of Almaty. Redistricting is coming this next year and may affect this district since it is based on Rotary population, not land area. The Kazakhstani Tenge is the currency.

Rotarians in the News:

A comprehensive Press Citizen article was published about the Operation Warm project and presentation and distribution at Children’s Museum. Article also included a brief history of the Rotary service projects in District 6000.

Announcements:

Board meeting Thursday 6:45, Waterfront HyVee

Committee for Reviewing Club Goals met last Wednesday, and will convene again in January

Project Warm report; distribution at Children’s Museum

30-40 coats given away. Many of the kids were overjoyed. Dinner was provided by Cik Fillet. Deb Dunkhouse presented the update

Dictionary Project is coming this time of year. Our club delivers to six area schools in teams. A short presentation is given when dictionaries are brought showing the kids how to use the dictionary. Please volunteer to join the team. Sheets were left on the table. Presented by Joan Garity

Mike Messier spoke about the nominating process for board members and President-elect nomination process. Nomination lists and ballots were distributed and collected.

Mark Vitosh, District Forester, Iowa DNR, “Emerald Ash Borer”

Mark was an Iowa City native local before moving to Ames and has also spent some time around the Midwest. He had worked for the Iowa State Extension for a while before taking on the position with the DNR. Individuals with more than 1 acre may call on Mr. Vitosh to ask questions about their properties wooded areas for guidance.

The ash borer most likely arrived in US in mid 90’s but was first detected in 2002 on a crate from Asia. It has spread across the Midwest and as far west as Colorado. First spread by nursery stock in particular shade trees, fire wood has also had a lot to do with the spread as people often do not observe the quarantines. There has been possible spread on the rail roads as the borer “jumped” off the train. Mark stressed it is important to buy local wood and keep it there. Taking fire wood to other areas can spread more than just the borer. There is a federal quarantine in Iowa to not move hard wood firewood out of the state and it is illegal to do so.

The Borer has been found on an infested tree in 13 location throughout Iowa. A Beetle alone has been found in Iowa City. It is hard to find because it takes 5-6 years to show in an infested tree.

The bug is small and it is not the adult that kills the tree but it is the larva. They will eat through each other to get to the wood on the other side.

An infested tree has particular look as the borer takes over. The bug destroys from the top and works down and this is apparent in the foliage. To manage an infested tree there are a few things you can do.

Do nothing and remove the as tree as soon as they begin to die. One thing to consider is that the life span of an Ash tree is 40-70 years.

Replant now in open spaces with diversity then remove ash as they decline.

Treat healthy ash with insecticides-This would have to be a long term commitment.

In honor of election day, antecdotes and remarks pertained to politics. The word politics is made up on two words. First is “poli” meaning many and the second is “tics” meaning blood sucking parasites. We were reminded that our founding fathers excluded from voting women, catholics, non-protestants and those owning less than 40 acres of land. Two of the members present would have been eligible to vote under those rules.

John Schultz was recognized as a new member transferring from the Iowa City Club. Chris Knapp was recognized as a rotary benefactor meaning that he had included Rotary Foundation as an estate beneficiary of at least $10,000. He also commented that he marked “share” as a donor which will provide income to the district as well.

Guests: Amanda McFadden guest of Jim Peterson

Rotarians in the News:

Mike Messier – ribbon cutting for Iowa City Hospice

Chris Ockenfels- Pumpkin toss for United Way

Announcements:

Keep the Novaks and Romanowskis in your thoughts and prayers.

Project Warm- there will be coat distribution at the Children’s Museum Thursday, November 13 from 4:30 to 6. Members are welcome. Contact Deb Dunkhase.

District Rotary Foundation Dinner- November 8th at the Holiday Inn Coralville.

Deb Dunkhase introduced our speaker Connie Mutel, a plant ecologist trained in Colorado. She and her husband, a University of Iowa astronomer, live on 16 acres of timber on Sugar Bottom Road 37 years ago. It had been used as a woodlot rather than grazed so retained a number of native plants. They have been working to improve the property and restore the biodiversity.

She noted that 200 years ago the Iowa landscape burned regularly due to lightning or native Americans. With burning, oaks flourished and were 80% of the forest. Without that burning since, other trees and plants have thrived replacing the oaks which do not due reproduce in shaded environments. She described the use of burning on their property and the benefits. With burns the forest is more conducive to grasses and wildflowers and oaks. Without restoration, a number of animal and plant species will disappear. She indicated that after restoration, milkweed, red headed woodpeckers have reappeared on their property. She also noted that restoration provides better soil protection from heavy rains. Due to climate change, the Midwest including Iowa has been experiencing 45% more heavy rains particularly in the spring.

If you have any questions or would like to see her woodland property she can be reached at conniemutel@uiowa.edu. The state forestry department has foresters who will help you assess woodlands for you at no charge. She also recommended the Burr Oak Land Trust organization for those interested in joining a group focused on woodlands.

Since Mark could find no funny stories about City managers, he began with a question: what is the beginning of high holy week in the Jewish religion? Rosh Hashanah —New year; the period ends with Yom Kippur— the day of atonement. He then followed with a very lame joke:

What is Old Testament passage about laxatives? Moses took two tablets and went down the hill. Moans ensued.

Sergeant-at-Arms Report:

Guests & Visiting Rotarians: Deb Ockenfels introduced Carolyn Wanat; Rebecca Schultz introduced her husband, John, stating she hoped this was the last time; Sally Scott, president of the Iowa Valley Habitat board was the guest of President Mark; Jim Peterson introduced Amanda McFadden;Rick Dobyns introduced Simon Andrew, assistant to City Manager Markus; and Pat Barron, Rotary Club of West Chester, PA.

Sue Cronin reported on Curacao which is in the southern part of the Caribbean. It’s climate is dry and windy with an average temperature of 82 degrees. It is typically out of the hurricane zone and has beautiful beaches. Curacao was settled initially by the Arawaks and then the Spanish and the Dutch. It was a center of slave trade. Willemstad is the capital and a UNESCO world heritage site. Languages spoken are Dutch, English, and Papiamentu. The government is a parliamentary representative democracy, One of its best known exports is the liqueur, that carries its name. There is one Rotary club with 100 members, and 2 Rotaract clubs. One feature Sue noticed was the lack of respect for local blacks, and any tourists who are not Dutch.

Announcements:

Scribes, dishwashers, and greeters are needed for the month of October; sign up sheets are at the front table

District Grant Writing workshop is Oct. 15 from 6pm-9pm in West Liberty

Month opener is Oct. 6 at 5:15pm at Donnelly’s

Joint Service Club luncheon is Oct. 9th at the University Club; tickets are $15

A Fireside Chat will be held at Jean Bartley’s home Oct. 23 from 6pm-8pm; all new members are strongly encouraged to attend. Pizza and libations will be served.

MOST applications are still being taken

Brian announced we are into week 3 of nut sales; for businesses, it is a tax deduction. He sold a number of boxes through his hair “salon”.

Myrene announced an event at UIHC on 10/24 in the hospital museum. It is International Polio Eradication Day; the event begins at 5:30pm

Hospice will have an open house on 10/9 at their Wade St office (Note: Mike told us Maggie Elliot, the executive director of Hospice for many years, is retiring)

In the last installment of the state of local government, Rick Dobyns introduced Tom Markus, City Manager of the City of Iowa City, giving an overview of his career.

Tom presented DG John Ockenfels with a bottle of scotch bottled in South Africa by Rotarians to be used as a fundraiser. The bottle was acquired by Deb Markus, Tom’s wife, when she traveled on a Rotary Friendship Exchange. Tom suggested the bottle be placed on the District Conference auction to raise money for a Rotary project.

Tom then presented Iowa City’s focus of “Bulding a Resilient Community”. He identified three areas of challenge: Environment; Financial; and the Economy. He noted the Council is doing strategic planning every 2 years.

Environment: 3 largest floods in last 6 years

Financial: state tax reform & shrinking fed revenue

Economy: change in global economy. Workforce challenge: filling high tech jobs. Cited shovel ready ind park and fact that only got nibbles. Hard to find businesses to develop May need to build businesses in city rather than hunt for new.

In the arena of the Environment, the city has been challenged by the three largest floods in its history in the last 6 years. $135 million has been spent in flood mitigation since 2008. The City bought 100 flood prone properties. An ordinance to control development in the 500-year floodplain has been adopted. The north sewer plant has been decommissioned and will be converted to a park, acting as the foundation for the Iowa River Crossing project.

He then referenced other projects including the Animal Shelter, the pump station on Rocky Shore Drive and the Dubuque Street Gateway project, among others.

In the arena of Financial resiliency, challenges have included the decrease in gas tax due to altered driving habits and its impact on road repair funds, the decrease in federal funding for large projects, and a 36% reduction in state and federal support for social services.

On top of this state tax reform will impact Iowa City with a decrease in tax revenue projected to be between $37-51million. The City does not expect this to be back-filled by the State.

Tom reminded us that in November. the local option sales tax would be on the ballot and he would supply some facts. This is a county-wide ballot issue. The five contiguous cities around Iowa City must vote as a block. Taxes generated go into one pool, which is then reallocated by the State based 75% on population and 25% on where the taxes are collected. Tom is a strong advocate for maintaining the Iowa system reflected in this reallocation formula since people pay the taxes, the business doesn’t.

Iowa City has chosen to allocate any revenue generated by the tax as follows:

50% to street and trail improvements;

40% to tax relief, which includes backfilling the loss noted above, potential lowering of property taxes or deferring future increases; and

10% to affordable housing.

Tom noted this would be the first time there would be a stream of local money to address affordable housing. He believes there is a need to disperse lower income housing so it fits into neighborhoods throughout the city.

Tom then reviewed new projects on the horizon such as the Chauncey, a new stage on the pedestrian mall, and the UI Music Building.

Q & A

It was suggested that with a looming $50M deficit, the City start a happy bucks program.

How have planning policies changed? Customer service and economic development are emphasized. There is a different attitude now of “How do we make it happen?” The City is also considering changing ordinances which no longer seem reasonable.

How will the relationship between UI and the City be going forward? Tom felt the relationship was good but the City needs to stand up to the University and present its case so that the City is treated equitably; he referenced the agreements between the University and the cities in which it has facilities and the relative payments in lieu of taxes.

President Mark noted it was the first day of fall. In a fall vein, he offered the following riddles: What is the ratio of pumpkin circumference to diameter? Pumpkin pi. What do you give a pumpkin who is trying to quit smoking? A pumpkin patch. He closed, thank goodness, with a quote from Charles Schultz, which roughly said, “Don’t worry about today, because it is already tomorrow in Australia.” Har, har!!

Randy Willman reported that President Mark was the only Rotarian in the News that he was aware of.

Where in the World is? Luxembourg:

Brian Adamec stated he chose Luxembourg because he had been there and could pronounce it.

Luxembourg is landlocked, surrounded by Germany, Belgium, and France. The population is approximately 500,000 people who live in less than 1000 square miles. The primary languages are French, German, and Luxembourgese, The country was founded in 963. It is governed by a parliamentary democracy headed by a consitutional monarchy. Luxembourg was Invaded during WWII by Germany and liberated by the Allies. The country has the second largest GDP per capita in Europe and sells the most alcohol per capita. It has a very small army and no navy.

Announcements:

Club board meeting is at 6:45 am Thursday.

The Fairfield Rotary club is sponsoring a golf outing

Joint Service Club luncheon is Oct. 9th at the University Athletic Club; tickets are $15

10/15 Rotary district training

10/23 fireside chat for new members at Jean Bartleys house; 6-8pm; pizza will be served

Iowa MOST is looking for team members; applications can be found at iowamost.org. If you have an interest in going, please apply. Even if there are not slots this year, a database is being compiled of all who are interested.

FAMSCO is having a workday at the warehouse on Sunday 9/28; 1-3:30pm

The District is looking for two people with experience teaching or with ESL experience to fill a Vocational Training Team to Tanzania from Jan. 15 to Feb. 11, 2015. Rotarians and non- Rotarians are welcome. If interested or for more information, contact Karin Franklin.

The Iowa City Downtown District is looking for volunteers for the Northside Oktoberfest for the afternoon of Sept. 26th. Contact Betsy at betsy@downtowniowacity.org to sign up.

Roger Christian asked that everyone please bus plates to the kitchen and don’t rinse just stack. He needs people for the end of the month for dishwashing.

Brian Adamec said we have until 10/15 to order nuts. He would like to surpass last years participation. Vernette reported she took forms to a tailgate and also got orders from visiting friends.

Program: Chris Knapp, in keeping with the month’s theme of the state of local government, introduced Kelly Hayworth, City Administrator for the City of Coralville, to give us the state of Coralville.

Kelly stated that flood damage was still a topic of conversation, however the City has completed a significant portion of their flood mitigation. They have spent a little over $60M on flood mitigation, which has worked as tested by the last couple of summers. The last project is behind Monica’s.

One can observe a lot of work in the 5th Street part of Coralville, the historic center of Coralville. The City bought and razed a number of houses for redevelopment. They are preserving the old schoolhouse. In the future, Fifth Street paving will be removed and a new street with landscaping, sidewalk and improved streetscape will be completed. Currently under construction is the Watts project, Old Town, which is mixed use, residential and commercial.

Blue Sky Development is working on the south side of 5th Street on another mixed use project—residential and commercial. West Bank will be moving into Town Centre and a round-about is planned for 10th Ave and 5th St. A number of the corners of this intersection will be redeveloped.

Coral Ridge Ave and 965 is another work site. With completion there will be underpass for pedestrians and bikes and a 10-foot bike trail.

Oakdale Research Park is seeing a lot of job growth. Sedgwick CMS will have 250 jobs; UIHC support services, 1000 jobs; MediRev is opening their second building with 180 jobs; General Dynamics will add 126 jobs; and the Kirkwood STEM facility is expected to open next fall and will serve 500 students from area schools.

A new interchange is planned at I-80 and Forevergreen Road. This project is on the DOT’s 5-year road plan and scheduled for a start in 2018. DOT wants the corridor communities to look at alternative modes of transportation in the corridor which could include buses or a train between Coralville/Iowa City and Cedar Rapids.

In Iowa River Landing, three new stores opened this week. The Watts Group is also building a 70-unit condo project with retail on ground level. The new intermodal facility is under way with office space for transit; a transit hub; parking; bike lockers and showers plus office space for the Iowa Bicycle Coalition. IDOT is proposing an interchange redesign at 1st Ave and I-80 which would include a divergent diamond pattern. It is less expensive to build and take less real estate.

Lastly, the Scanlon farm development is going forward. It will have a new elementary school in 2018-2019. Utilities such as sewer and water will be integrated between Coralville and North Liberty. The development will include a variety of housing including a senior complex.

Q & A

Brian thanked Kelly for the light at Oakdale and Ist Avenue and expressed concern with interchange proposal for I-80 at 1st Ave. Kelly stated they had viewed the same pattern elsewhere and it does work well.

Will Oakdale Blvd go to Tiffin? Yes, it will extend across I-380. In the future, it is also planned to extend Oakdale across the Iowa River to connect to Hwy 1 in Iowa City. The project will include bike trails.

Will the bike trail along Oakdale go to the Amanas? The County is currently planning sections to Kent Park; ultimately the interest is to get it to the Amanas.

Flood mitigation included raising the Crandic; is this complete? Yes the line was raised. Iowa City is doing work on Rocky Shore with a major pump station which is integral to the success of the Coralville mitigation projects.

Is the NADS working with Google on the driverless car? Yes, the ability to test the vehicle in winter conditions makes study of this technology perfect for Iowa; the NADS will be used as part of the testing.

PE Myrene said instead of the usual homily she would just announce the need for a greeter and dishwasher for next week; sign-up sheets were passed around.

Sergeant-at-Arms report:

Guests & visiting Rotarians: Chris Knapp introduced his guest, Tom Kriz, the speaker, and Rotarian John Schultz from the Rotary Club of Iowa City. Deb Ockenfels introduced Rotarian Jody Braverman from the Rotary Club of Iowa City.

Rotarians in the news: Randy Willman noted Dave Parsons and Pam Ehly were both in the news.

Where in the world is Antarctica?: Kris Ockenfels reported on Antarctica. Though there are no full-time residents, there have been two Rotary clubs. Neither club has continued to today. Having traveled there and loved it, she noted only a few crazy people are there very long. 98% of the continent is covered in ice, which is 1-2 miles thick. It is the coldest and driest continent. She said it Is a beautiful country.

Announcements:

PE Myrene announced-

the presidents of the local Rotary clubs will meet Friday, 9/18 at 10am at Village Inn.

Oct. 9 is the date for the Joint Service Club Luncheon; tickets are $15 and can be purchased from Mark.

a Fireside chat is in the wind

Brian Adamec talked about nuts for RYLA. Orders can be placed; he encouraged using these nuts for business gifts.

Roger Christian noted the need for dishwashers for Sept. Also, Jack Cameron will need help at the end of September with set up at 6am

Gary Hammond announced the receipt of $100 for Project Warm from a Cedar Rapids man who heard John Ockenfels talk at Sertoma.

Program: Chris Knapp introduced Tom Kriz, Johnson County Treasurer, who would talk about the condition of the County. Johnson County is in a sound financial state. Our county does not experience the peaks and valleys others experience; the economy is very stable due to the strong economy around the University of Iowa. The County has an annual budget of $97.7M. Of that, 30% goes to law enforcement; the courts and the sheriff’s office. Another 30% goes to mental health; 10% to rural roads; and the rest to administration. Of the administrative costs, 38% is salaries and benefits. At this time, all union contracts are open.

Seeing a need for more expertise in finance as the County grows, a new Finance Department was created from three vacated positions in the Treasurers’, Auditors’ and Board of Supervisors’ offices. Risk management is now being done in this new department.

Johnson County never borrowed money until 1999. They keep the term of their borrowing to 3 years or less. They started borrowing for operations with 60-90 day borrowings as a consequence of the use of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) in the county. TIF has impacted counties budget. As treasurer, Kriz is fine with TIF since it fosters growth but it has had an impact of the budget. To lessen that impact, the County borrows short notes for operations. Any monies encumbered for debt cannot be taken from County revenue by the body using TIF. Some towns in Johnson County include their entire city in a TIF district.

Kriz advised everyone to look at their tax statement to see where their tax dollars go. In Iowa City, about 45% goes to the City; about 40% to the school district; 15% to the County; and 5% to other taxing jurisdictions such as the area education agency. With some of the property tax changes passed at the State level, the tax burden has shifted from commercial to residential.

Kriz encouraged taking an active role in choosing those who govern regardless of party. One of the biggest challenges is having collaborations between counties and cities. He noted it can be done but requires the right people in the right positions.

He closed with noting that you can shrink government and still provide services. He has reduced his department and they still provide good service.

Q & A

What is take on sales tax relative to apartment tax changes? Apartment tax changes will cut in half the income for Iowa City. Commercial tax rollback change will shift to residential. Ag land will start paying more. As to sales tax, the City needs to make up some of the lost property tax somehow.

Explain further borrowing and TIF: Borrowing helps with TIF by spreading out the burden.

Collection procedure for those who do not pay, how is it done? The third monday of June his office must sell “taxes” due; investors can pay taxes and get property. 99% of taxes are paid.

How does the County absorb a big loss in cases of tax disputes when an owner sues the County for taxes? It is absorbed through reserves , but every jurisdiction has to cover any losses.

Chris thanked Tom for his presentation and Myrene said a book would be donated to a school in Tom’s name.

Consistent with our program on education, President Mark quizzed us on two words:

what is a five letter word that becomes shorter when you add two letters to it to make the word shorter? SHORTER

what word includes all the vowels? UNQUESTIONABLY

Sergeant-at-arms report:

Guests: Rotarians LaDonnaWicklund, and Kermit Shekker, both from the IC Noon club

Make-ups: all those attending the month opener were asked to stand; additional make-ups were had by Karin Franklin; Brad Langguth; Pat Schnack; Ann Langenfeld; and Deb Ockenfels.

Rotarians in news: Mark Patton with Lisa Bluder for the Habitat Womens’ Build. President Mark thanked all the Rotarians who attended the Habitat fundraiser

Where in the world are the Turks and Caicos Islands:Deb Ockenfels reported the Turks and Caicos consist 8 major islands in a string of about 40 islands in the Atlantic north of Cuba and Haiti. The main island is Providenciales. There are 68 clubs in the area. Their District Conference includes PETS training. Average temperatures are in the low 80s. Like us they do a dictionary project. All agreed doing PETS in the West Indies was preferable to PETS in Minnesota in March. Discussion followed of the origin of the name Caicos…..with no one really knowing but the usual suspects offering the usual comments.

Announcements:

Pam Ehly announced that the new book to be given in honor of our speakers will be Every Last Drop: bringing clean water home .

President Mark announced that this Friday is the regular meeting of the presidents and president-elects of the area clubs. Any one with a topic to discuss should see Mark.

Tickets for the Joint Service Club luncheon on Oct. 9 are now available and are $15/ticket.

A thank you note was received from last week’s speaker, Patty McCarthy.

President Mark displayed the new Rotary International logo. It consists of a plain cogged wheel and the name ROTARY next to it in the Rotary blue. Instructions are to keep what you have but anything new should use the new logo.

LadonnaWicklund announced a fundraiser, Literacy Champions Party, at the home of Linda and Bill Bywater from 5:30 to 7:30 on Thursday, 9/11. Tickets are $25 and support the literacy program I Can Read.

Brian Adamec announced that he will again do the Rotary nuts fundraiser for RYLA; the hope is to raise sufficient funds to send at least 4 young people to RYLA . Brian will bring order forms next week.

Roger Christian reported an on-going need for dishwashers.

Elaine Shalla stated she has updated the standing committees on the website. The committee chairs can add any new members to the lists.; Any member can go to the website to see what committees are available and should contact the chair if interested.

Pam Ehly introduced our speaker, Steve Murley, who is Superintendent of the Iowa City Community School District, who would give us the state of the school district.

Steve started relating a couple of events that he observed recently that were resonant with Rotary’s involvement with clean water and with Habitat.

Steve indicated the new year started with the District welcoming 300 new students. The first week was warm and with a number of schools being without air conditioning, early outs were planned for the whole week. The District is working on improving the air conditioning situation. Things started moving very quickly with kids getting into the flow of things. Class size is looking good. The District is starting to be challenged with space in the high schools, so are likely to close to open enrollment. Southeast Jr. High is also crowded so closing it to open enrollment is also being considered. Steve pointed out that we are fortunate in that unlike districts where schools are closing, ICCSD is one of the few districts in Iowa who are growing. This is a sign that our communities are prospering.

Today the Board will start strategic planning. The Board sets what they want kids to know. They also do “superintendent directions” which is outlining those things they do not want the staff to do to attain the goals. One thing the Board has struggled with is goal setting. They have only done the process twice since Steve has been superintendent. On thing they will focus on is Board governance. The Board is trying to shift focus from infrastructure to teaching and learning goals; community engagement; and learning supports or how to enable teachers.

Steve pointed out that ICCSD does rank highly in the State and in the nation; have two schools that rank 2nd and 3rd in the nation.

There are challenges. Since Steve arrived, the student population has increased by over 1400 kids, which is the total size of some small rural districts. ICCSD is high in Free and Reduced Lunch (FRL) students, at just short of 40%; and has a significant number of English as a Second Language students.

Steve then discussed some of the new schools. The new elementary on Sycamore will hold about 500 kids and the District is working with the City to expand the size of gym for mutual usage.

In fall of 2017, at American Legion and Taft, a new elementary named Hoover will be built. It will be used as a transition school for Longfellow in 2017-2018 and Mann and Lincoln in 20182019, while those existing buildings are being refurbished. In 2019 it will open to new students. This enable a shorter window for the rehab work and is much less disruptive to learning.

Currently, Twain is being rehabbed and modulars are being used. One can see modulars at Wood as well but this is due to overcrowding. An advantage of modulars is they are air-conditioned.

The Christine Grant school will be built at the corner of North Liberty Road and Dubuque Street, across from the proposed new high school.

Questions:

What is future of Hoover? This is unknown but City High is pinched for space.

Is land for new schools purchased or donated? It has been a combination of both.

Who is Alexander, after which the elementary is named? Archibald Alexander. Bios of all the people after whom schools are named is on the District website.

When will all the buildings have air-conditioning? There is a 5-year plan.

With Ross Wilburn leaving, will the Equity Director position be redefined? Steve is looking at attaching some responsibilities for staff recruitment of people of color.

How do you engage people with out kids in school business/elections? Through community engagement efforts and getting the word out of what is happening in district.

Is there planning between the District and the City as to school locations relative to infrastructure? Yes, the District works very closely with the City for site locations.

What is the correlation between FRL and learning? It relates to reading. Statistically lower income kids have fewer words in their vocabulary and fewer experiences for reference. Getting them to read at the start is very important and the District has found that the longer the student is in the District, the more likely they are to succeed academically.

President Mark thanked Steve for his presentation and indicated a book would be given in his name to a school in the District.

Chris Knapp led us in song including birthday wishes for September birthdays.

Mark called attention to a handout called 20 Clues to Rural Community Survival and noted the points relevant to Rotary including #10. deliberate transition of power to a younger generation of leaders, #11 acceptance of women in leadership roles, and #19 willingness to seek help from the outside.

Vernette announced the speakers for the month that will include Steve Murley, Kelly Hayworth and Tom Markus

Roger Christian offered abundant dishwashing opportunities.

Rotarians in the News:

In Randy’s absence, President Mark shared the full page ad in the Press Citizen Key which included all the area Rotary clubs.

Happy Bucks:

Numerous happy bucks were shared ranging from boar names to birdies, cars and grandkids to sports teams and trips, big donations for coats, and ending with the 52nd wedding anniversary of Bryan and Ginny Clemons!

Where in the world is

Azerbaijan? In Toby’s absence, Pat Schnack and Hazel Seaba filled in from their personal experiences in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is in the Caucusus and is a former Soviet bloc country. Although a modern country, travel in the countryside feels like a step back into the 3rd century. Parts are hot and dry. In the cities, one will see markets with spices since the country was on the old spice route. When Hazel was there it still felt very Soviet. In the rural areas, there were places where people would leave money for blessings. President Mark reflected how this must be their happy bucks. Har,har!

Toby owes Pat and Hazel big time! [ed.]

Program: Chris Knapp introduced Robert Downer of the Iowa State Board of Regents, on which Bob has served since 2003. Bob is also a local attorney with the firm of Meardon, Sueppel & Downer, which he joined in 1963 after graduation from the UI Law School. Bob is a member of the Rotary Club of Iowa City Noon and a past president.

Bob began stating he was president of the Noon Club at the time of founding of AM Club and spoke at the banquet when the charter was presented. He noted Ralph McGill, past editor of the Atlanta Constitution, is known to have said he would not speak to a Rotary club because he would never speak to a group that sang lustily during the day while cold sober. After regaling us with a story of a Clark Mollenhof speech which included vomit, Bob turned to the topic of the Regents.

The total budget for all the Regents universities is $5B, which is approximately 2/3 the size of the total State budget. 66% of the $5B is the University of Iowa. UIHC alone is well over $1B; athletics is larger than other universities; and the hygenics lab also contributes a significant amount to the size of the UI budget.

At next Board meeting in Ames, the agenda will include a 5-year capital plan for all the Regents institutions. The UI portion of the plan is larger than all the others. For example, the projections provided by the institutions include $351M for UI and $50M for Iowa State. Bob pointed out that construction on campus will be continuing for years beyond 2016, so mind the cranes and the cones.

Bob then enumerated a number of projects including renovation of Seashore and the psychology area; expansion of library study space; renovation of communications & Schaeffer Hall; an addition to the Seaman Center based on demand for engineering graduates; and Phase II of the Iowa River Landing medical clinic. He noted that increasingly donations account for a considerable share of these projects.

He added that a new residence hall is proposed; a 12-13 story hall on the east side of river on the old Iowa City water plant site, near North Hall. He reported studies have shown that student performance is better when they live on-campus. Currently a smaller percentage of students are housed on campus at UI than at other institutions. With current construction of Peterson Hall, there will only be a 150 bed net increase since the Quad will come down given its age and the inefficiency of the building. The Quad space will be used for a proposed Pharmacy building.

Bob went on to discuss the performance based funding concept which could reallocate $23.5M from UI to IA state and UNI. The concept is based on undergrad enrollment figures. At this time it is not known if the concept and reallocation will be approved by the Legislature. Bob noted that he was one vote on Board against this after a concerted effort to modify the proposal. The formula of the concept does not take into account the cost of instruction. He stated the cost of educating a student in the college of dentistry is 11.98 times that of the cost of educating some one in liberal arts. Bob feels the College of Dentistry is a poster child for university departments in that it provides so much service to the whole state of Iowa; over 70% of graduates stay in Iowa and practice throughout the state. Bob believes it is not in the public interest to drive up tuition costs in these programs and drive students to other states. He has argued for supporting these programs to keep grads in Iowa.

Finally, he noted the Deloitte study is on the agenda as well. Projected savings are of a magnitude which Bob does not think will be attained.

In answer to questions, Bob stated he does not expect the University will go back to requiring freshman and sophomores to live on campus; enrollment is likely to increase due to performance based funding but he is concerned undergraduate education, which can be attained in many places, will become dominant over exceptional graduate programs; out of state tuition is about 2.5 times that of in-state and is calculated annually based on the cost of instruction: the cost of instruction includes everything except building construction costs; he does not expect the public/private partnership for housing will be replicated elsewhere on campus and noted that the new housing will be on the tax roles given the ownership model.

President Mark thanked Bob for his presentation and indicated a book would be given in his name to one of our local elementary schools.

Bob’ s parting comments were a congratulations and thank you to John Ockenfels for his service as District Governor, and appreciation that yours truly had found a club she liked!

President Mark reported $2853 had been collected for coats!!

Meeting was adjourned at 8:00am

Minutes respectfully submitted with no guarantee of accuracy by Karin Franklin.

Guests and Visiting Rotarians: Gary Anderson and his wife, Conor Henry and his brother, and father, Jeff Gallbraith, and Sofie (foreign exchange student).

Announcements:

David Parsons received his pin for perfect attendance and for being a past president.

This Friday is the 10th anniversary for the Downtown Club.

Oct. 9 is the joint service club. $9.00 for tickets.

Next week – board meeting at 6:45 am.

Coat project - $20 donation – checks made out to District 6000 HEF. We are hoping that by November 1, we will have the coats on the kids.

Rotarians in the news:

There was a picture of the RYLA group in the Press-Citizen. Dave Parsons had an article in the Gazette about being in Iowa.

Happy Bucks:

Many Rotarians were happy today!

Where in the World is Tanzania? Hazel Seaba presented on Tanzania. There are 36 Rotary clubs in 27 cities. The official language is English and most people speak Swailhi. 80% of the people work on the land in agriculture.

Program:

Conor Henry – My Korea Experience. Chris Knapp introduced Conor and told how Conor became the first District 6000 student to go to South Korea. Conor thanked the Rotary club for enabling him to study in South Korea. Conor lived in Pusan for the year. Rotary in Korea provided students with some traditional Korean clothing.

President Patton inducted Jean Knepper as a new member. No Rotarians were in the news this week. Where in the world is Slovenia? Connie Pestonick presented on Slovenia, formerly a part of Yugoslavia in south central Europe. Nancy Pachua introduced Daniel Smith and Neve Heimer-Lang who were sponsored by the Iowa City AM Rotary and attended the international World Affairs Seminar in Wisconsin. They shared what they learned and their favorite parts. President Patton read an update from Dean Carrington who is recovering from a biking accident. Roger Christiansen reported that a dishwasher volunteer is needed for next week. 13 Past Presidents were recognized by President Patton for their service and presented each with their Past President pin. Each shared a 10 second reflection on their leadership experience.

Happy Bucks:

Many Rotarians were happy today! Celebrations were birthdays, anniversaries, grandchildren, relatives visiting, family vacations and updates, State Fair news, and thanks for good health and electricity.

Program:

Deb Dunkase introduced our speaker Allie Howarth, Director of Events, from the Iowa City/Coralville Visitors Bureau. She distributed handouts and posters for Fryfest in the Iowa River Landing in Coralville on August 29. She highlighted the Fryfest events and tradeshow featured this year. All 84 Herky statues will be on display as well.

President Patton announced that there was a get well card going around for Dean Carrington who had a horrible bicycle accident last Tuesday. His legs were badly injured.

He is confined to a wheel chair and has gone to work on Monday.

John Mc Kinstry received a Paul Harris fellowship today.

No Rotarians in the news.

President Patton announced that he would like all Past Presidents to come to the meeting next week as they will be honored.

Nancy Pacha introduced two RYLA students that were sponsored by our club for the RYLA Leadership Event: Taylor and Erin. They both spoke of their wonderful rewarding experiences. Mark Mc Andrews from the NW Des Moines club was our guest. He was one of the Rotarian Advisors at RYLA. Erin spoke of her personal issues in the beginning and that she did not want to go to RYLA. Her experiences were wonderful. She learned team support and what a great support system from the counselors.

Taylor spoke of the great support systems, the hugs and the advantage of technology to keep in touch with her new found friends that area now like family.

Each day was filled from 6:45am-10:30 pm.

The International Where in the World is Lithuania by Pat Schnack.

Lithuania is part of the Baltic States. It is the largest of the Baltic States with 3 Million people. In 1941 it was held by Germany, in 1944 it became part of the USSR. In 1990 Lithuania was more modern than Romania. In 2004 Lithuania became part of Nato.

Happy Bucks:

Many Rotarians were Happy today. Celebrations were birthdays, anniversaries, grandchildren, relatives visiting, many trips around the U.S., working barns and not working barns, happy about Mark’s eggs, Janet Koester visiting, other people happy to be visiting.

Program:

Chris Knapp co-chair for Rotary Youth Exchange introduced program. He stated that there will be 15 ½ students inbound this year. The ½ is for the African student that will be coming January.

The program today was the three Rotary Youth Exchange Students who also attended RYLA. Justin Berry, Andie Lynch, and Erin Probst. Each student spoke about their upcoming year abroad, what they hope to gain from their exchange and the RYLA experience.

JUSTIN is going to Spain north of Madrid sponsored by the Iowa City noon club. He attended West High and graduated early for to be able to do his exchange year. He hopes to make great life- long friends and have wonder experiences with the culture. The RYLA experience was full of hugs, ice breakers, team building and leadership skills to give strength and understanding for situations.

ANDIE is going to Chile staying not far from Santiago. Andie goes to West High and will come back to finish her senior year. She hopes to learn the culture and learn the language in the upcoming year abroad. The RYLA experience brought her new perspective through Rotary to see the world. The closeness to the team and the leadership skills will be very valuable to her exchange.

ERIN is going to Chile. She hopes to learn everything about the new culture and relationships. RYLA taught her to be committed too learning new things about relationships, leadership, and new perspective. She learned how important the group learning experiences.

Members of the club ask about size of teams. 11-12 students

The student room and have meals with someone other than your team members.

Past RYLA attendees from the last two years are the counselors.

Some of the important activities are: Word of Focus, RAP sessions at the end of the around 10:00 pm. Very powerful sharing.

Wednesday night activity powerful as a group. “Take a Look Around” What do you want people to know about you? What don’t you want people to know about you? What can the teams do to support you? The RYLA participants all agreed that “Rotary will show you the world”

Gary Pacha made a statement at the end of the meeting. Thanks to Rotary for Shaping the Lives of these young individuals. The Future of Rotary!

Casey noted that our club’s attendance % had dropped precipitously the past couple of months and the next President had better to do better.

Our club had a 120% participation rate for the Polio Plus Campaign.

Sergeant-at-Armsreport: 7 Guests: Deb O introduced their daughter Kris; Toby introduced Gene Fisher; other guests included John Dawson from Kirkwood; a South African with an unpronounceable name, and Pete Wallace.

Rotarians in the News: All members were in the District 6000 newsletter.

Announcements: Pete Wallace announced the need to join the Fan Club for the Crisis Center, cost is $20 to purchase fans (supported by Blank and McCune).

June 26 is the board meeting at Waterfront Hy-Vee early in the morning (6:45 a.m.).

The first meeting with District Governor with a board will take place after the regular meeting on July 1.

Jim Peterson announced approval of a Paraguay water/sanitation project for +$30,000.

Myrene announced that the vacation house to bid on at the silent auction should be looked at seriously (i.e. bid it up).

Happy Bucks: Deb D had $15 for the 15 cellists who had climbed a Colorado mountain to present a cello concert; Mike M. announced the golf tournament will net about $30,000 and we had 28 volunteers from our club help out; Nenu was thankful for the Paraguayan grant, Tom N. announced that son Daniel flew to Helsinki; Liz L announced that Bill got home safe and had survived two weeks of their son-in-law; Pat S. thanked Valerie M. for the nice French breakfast, Andreas hoped that the US soccer team would beat Germany; Deb O was happy that her daughter might be interested in Rotary; Anne L. announced that Katy L got to Nicaragua safely; Jack reported that Brazil found polio in sewage but due to a 95% vaccination rate there was minimal fear of an epidemic; Bryan has a daughter and grandchildren who visited the Children’s Museum and it was the “Best Ever they had ever been in”; John O said he was looking forward to meeting with us first next week; Casey had a good European trip.

Program: Jack introduced Jon Weih, Director of Student Services at Kirkwood. He spoke about the new regional center. Background: 7 school districts in the Jones County area came together seven years ago to help form the first regional center in Monticello. Specialized and expensive equipment has made it difficult to offer trades. Senior Year Plus (passed by the Legislature) made it possible to offer high school seniors by community colleges. 3 regional centers have been built in Linn County, Washington County, and UI (to open in 2015) Center in Johnson County. Reasons for changes: new technology, new networking, new technical training needed.

Every student is funded at about $7000 by the state. If the student opts to take a Kirkwood course, Kirkwood charges back to the school district what it costs. School can then charge back to the state the cost to send the student on to Kirkwood. Clear Creek, College, Iowa City, Regina, Solon, Tipton, West Branch are school districts participating in the new Center. UI, STEM Hub, Grant Wood AEA, and Workplace Learning Connection will all be part of the new Center.

Students who test high enough can receive credits from UI or ISU. They opened an arts curriculum this past year and had about 90 students enrolled. John will be becoming Director of the Regional Center this week.

Sergeant-at-Armsreport: Guests: Herb Wilson. All the “P’s” were in attendance!

Rotarians in the News: Dave Parsons and City Carton (John O) were in the news.

Announcements: Gary reminded everyone that dues should get paid up before the end of our year at the end of June. He also reminded us dues will be going to $165 starting July 1. Roger mentioned a need for washing with non-magical soap the dishes we dirty (i.e. we need volunteers to wash).

Peggy mentioned a ICPL golf tournament that is a fundraiser for the Library; she also urged volunteers to sign up for year-ender. Deb D. reminded everyone to bring one item for the silent auction at the year-ender. Myrene shared that they would be offering up their house near McGregor in the live auction (i.e. come prepared to bid on a high ticket item). All proceeds from the auction will go to the Polio Eradication Campaign.

Mark asked members to consider volunteering for a week at RYLA as they have more youth signed up than originally anticipated.

June 26 is the board meeting at Waterfront Hy-Vee early in the morning (6:45 a.m.)

Happy Bucks: Pat Schnack was happy to go visit a son in Japan and to be taken to a speciality store there (condoms only). Deb VanAulken was happy to spend Father’s Day with her father and to report the Lady Football Academy had raised a $1 million in only four years. Jack was happy to have driven around the race track in Newton very fast. Deb P. was happy to announce the Jack was happy to have driven around the race track in Newton very fast. Deb P. was happy to announce they were going to visit South Africa. Herb Wilson was happy to announce they are celebrating their 62nd anniversary. Liz Loeb was happy to have a 16 day vacation in Ireland. Dick Huber was happy to have his mom come visit. Karin was happy to announce that if you order on Amazon under the “Smile.com” section 5% of the sales goes to charity of your choosing (including District 6000). Marti was pleased to be entrusted with their grandchildren for 10 days. Connie was happy for a person with disabilities giving out free backrubs to staff at Hy-Vee. Carl was happy to be sitting with his sponsor (Herb) and someone he sponsored (Jim P) into our club. Toby was very happy to have their daughter married off this past weekend. Mark P said he was happy on Father’s Day to NOT have any of his three grown children living at home.

Mary Louise Smith and Louise Noun approached Hunter Rawlings, UI President, in 1990 to see if an Iowa Womens Archive could be started and housed at the University. He thought it might work but did not have any funding. Louise Noun came up with the idea of selling off an original Diego Rivera painting she owned, which netted $1.5 million for the Archive.

She stated that the papers did not come flowing in, but they had to be sought out and patience was needed (one set of personal papers took 16 years before they were donated). She shared about the Iowa Federation Home at 942 Iowa Ave. which began its life as the “Colored Women’s Home) when blacks were not allowed to live in UI dormitories. She also told about Virginia Harper, a black woman from Ft. Madison in the early 20th century, whose grandparents had shared stories of when they were slaves. She also mentioned the Rural Women’s Project which highlights the women’s roles on the farm and the Mujeres Latinas Project in Ft. Madison and Muscatine. They are also undertaking a Jewish Women in Iowa project to document early Jewish women’s activities in the state.

Volunteers are encouraged to help transfer information into a digital format.

Sergeant-at-Armsreport: Guests: Newman Abuissa of CIVIC and Tanya Daniel Lujanskaya of Moldova (with whom we exchanged banners as she is President of the Rotary Club there), Greg’s daughter Erin who is heading off to Chile, Ann Romanaski was a guest of Bryan Clemons.

Dr. Ciro de Quatros, who helped eliminate polio in Latin America and the Caribbean, was remembered.

Rotarians in the News: Brad Langguth, Dave Parsons, the Knapps, and Casey were all captured in a photo which appeared in the local newspaper.

Announcements: Roger mentioned a need for washing dishes.

Peggy urged volunteers to sign up for year-ender.

June 10th auction was moved to the passing gavel ceremony on June 28: each member is encouraged to bring one item (you may deem worthless but is valuable to someone else).

June 26 is the board meeting at Waterfront Hy-Vee early in the morning (6:45 a.m.)

Happy Bucks: Karin Franklin was happy to go visit Australia; Peggy D and Tom Novak were happy for the Arts Festival; Nan was happy for West High making it to the soccer finals and seeing Tony Bennett LIVE; Rick Dobbins was happy for the return of his daughter and son-in-law to teach in Iowa City; Mike Messier was happy to eat up on some roof top restaurant; Liz Nichols gave $30 for their 30th anniversary; Hazel celebrated a milestone, but unnamed, birthday; Vernette, Jack, Deb O were happy; Jean B. was happy to attend an “over the top” wedding in Texas; Dave Parsons was happy to attend a Banjo jam convention; Casey was happy to be going to Italy and Croatia this next week; Newman (guest) said this had been the happiest morning he had spent in years; Tanya (guest) invited everyone to Moldova to taste the wine in their deep caves.

Program: Myrene introduced Fireside Chat Part II

Karin Franklin described the history of Iowa MOST (Miles of Smiles) which was first brought together in 2004 by Bill Olean, Gary Pacha and others who had previously gone on RotarPlast trips to El Salvador. They started in Quequetenango, Guatemala in 2006 and have returned every year since. Average team is about 35 members, with the project lasting 4.5 days. Major work is cleft palate surgery on children where they average between 40-50 children during the week they are operating. Karin emphasized that you did not need any medical training to participate on the trip. The project is supported by District 6000 as well as Johnson/Johnson.

Nancy Pacha spoke about Interact, the high school Rotary organization. It was organized in Melbourne, Florida in 1962 and there are now +10,000 clubs worldwide in 100 countries. There are 13 clubs in District 6000 with Des Moines Roosevelt being the most recent to have been started. Past advisors in our club include Joan Garrity at City High, Margie W. at West High, and Nancy P (current at West High). Nan Mercier is joining the District Committee for Youth. Interactors do lots of projects including Peer Tutoring, serving at the Ronald McDonald House, Dance Marathon, CROP Walk, sponsoring a child from Guatemala, hosting a new teacher welcome each year, hosting Dance for Humanity (for Habitat), putting on a Music Festival, and UAY. Our club supports youth with two sponsored spots to RYLA and World Affairs Institute in Wisconsin. We publicize their efforts and support them in any way we can.

Liz Nichols explained the Youth Exchange program. She recognized the Knapps for their District Youth work for the past 20 years. She emphasized it is important to have host families for the visiting youth (need some for this coming school year). Deb Galbraith will be counseling this year’s student. Whether we are able to host students after next year will be dependent on having the student going outside the Iowa City school district, until such time as the new high school is open.

He immediately called on Chris Knapp to lead us in song. The usual songs, “My country ‘tis of Thee” followed by “Smile”, were sung.

Casey called on Susan Murty. She has been a member since 2006. Next Tuesday will be her last meeting with us, since she is moving to North Carolina to help her sister. Casey mentioned that she embodies Rotary International model of Service above Self. She does whatever needs to be done, from cleaning / sanitizing the tables after the meetings, to being a member of the committee that decides who gets our community grants. Casey then called Jim Peterson, who is Susan’s sponsor. He said Susan has been a valuable member of the club; he mentioned that Susan was one of the Univ. of Iowa professionals who was immediately interested in the Xicotepec project. Jim described her as having a sunny disposition, but never losing sight of the serious aspect of the work at hand.

Susan said she visited the Rotary Club of Black Mountain, North Carolina, but it is not Iowa City AM.

Sergeant-at-Armsreport

Jack mentioned there were fewer members today; we need to remind members that we meet on Tuesdays, in the mornings.

Guests: Ann Romanowski, guest of Bryan Clemons.

As every Tuesday, Tae-Sung Yun, Timmy, our INBOUND student from South Korea, was in attendance. Chris made it a point to thank everybody in the club who helped during the year to make Tae-Sung’s stay possible and good once here.

Today was Timmy’s last day with us, since he returns to his home country on June 2nd. Good luck, Timmy.

Announcements

Casey read two thank you notes from the recipients of the books donations. Lisa, who is the Director of the “I can read” program, said that the books touch many lives. She thanked the club for the $250.00 the Program was given during one of our March meetings.

Casey reminded us that the Auction will take place at the club's year-end celebration on June 28th.

Roger said nobody signed today to do dishes. Dishes were done, nevertheless.

Sue Cronin informed us that the money collected from the recycling of cartridges, $400.00, will this time be donated to the Kiva Project. Said project gives grants to entrepreneurs in low income areas around the world so they can start their projects. The money is then returned to the group, and the cycle begins again. If we go to kivaproject.com, we can see the requests for grants, and suggest the one we like to Sue. (Note: Sue’s sister passed away after the accident).

Nenu mentioned that whoever does dishes should make certain he / she has the key to lock the room. It is also requested of the members who do have keys, to make sure the member in charge of doing dishes has a key to lock the room.

Happy Bucks

Many Happy Bucks were donated for a variety of reasons.

Program

Liz Loeb introduced the speakers, the two Project Green Chairpersons Diane Allen and Cindy Parsons, who are to talk about said project.

At the start, the two members mentioned that this is a very informal presentation, with a power point.

The Project was started in 1968, by three founding members. It is now an urban renewal project. There are no members per se, thus no annual dues. Everybody who volunteers is a member, and no experience is necessary.

They work very closely with the City of Iowa City officials.

The object is to beautify Iowa City, its most visible areas.

On Saturday, July 12th, the Garden Tour will take place between 3 and 8 pm. The ticket is $5.00.

Project Green has an educational side to it. Among the educational programs, they have: Kindergarten Trees, which allows children to choose and plant a tree in their school grounds. The students then get to see its growth during the time they are at that school.

Another educational project is “Sunday Garden tours.” It is a collaboration with the Iowa City Public Library. Its object is to talk about everything related to gardens. This project attracts good crowds.

The gardens selected to participate this year are all on different terrain / grounds, they face different challenges.

The Garden Fair is Project Green’s main source of funding. There are assorted plants that were donated by volunteers, and there are experts and resources available on site. There are also artists who donate their artwork for gardens.

Whatever is left over from the Fair is taken to Ashton House.

The funds collected since inception amount to approximately $2,000,000.00. We must keep in mind that maintenance is very costly.

Project Green has been involved in the following projects: Iowa Avenue (it continues), Melrose Ave, North Dubuque Street, Hwy. 6 Bypass planting, Gilbert and Hwy 6 intersection, Terry True Blood Park, Normandy Dr., the Court House, MidAmerican project, West High school, and Ashton House, a historic place that was donated by the city to Project Green. It is a dream come true, they said.

Q & A.

Does the city help Project Green? Yes, it does. The city mows the lawns, gives mulch when needed, and stores tools, among other things.

The President asked Chris Knapp to lead us in the songs: “My country ‘Tis of Thee” and “Smile”

President Casey made it a point to thank everybody who volunteered at the Golf Tournament on Monday. Mike Messier later said that about 50% of the club members participated. He also thanked everybody.

The Sargeant-at-Arms reported on the visitors, who were introduced by their hosts, and the make ups. Since there were so many that had volunteered on Monday at the golf tournament, he just asked us to stand up.

Nancy Pacha showed the picture of the twins born to Katya. The mother and the babies are in good health. The picture shows the twins holding hands.

Rick mentioned that Sue Cronnin’s sister had an accident, and requested prayers for her.

Mike reminded everybody that today is the last day to take advantage of the discounted price of $125 registration for 2015’s District Conference.

It was pointed out that the Board will meet Thursday next week.

Happy Bucks

Many Rotarians shared their happiness during more than 20 minutes.

Program

The program for today was a talk by the INBOUND student hosted by our club, Tae-Sung Yun, from South Korea, Timmy, as he graciously told us to call him when Chris introduced him to the club. Tae-Sung will be returning to his home country, on June 2nd. We will miss him.

He first told us that we should visit South Korea, his homeland, and that he would give us the reasons why. Tae-Sung described his flag. Light blue as the base colour, for purity, love, traditions, yang (plus) and ying (minus) to the center. Everything in the Universe has its opposites: mother / son; winter / summer; harmony / discord. There are lines in the four corners of the flag. The three lines on the upper left hand side corner mean: father, spring, sky and justice. The ones on the upper right hand side corner mean: son, winter, the moon, and wisdom. The lines on the lower right hand side corner mean: mother, summer, earth and vitality. The lines on the lower left hand side corner means: daughter, autumn, sun and fruition. Four elements, four seasons, the family. The South Korean flag represents Peace, Unity, and Creation.

March 1st is to celebrate and cherish; in 1945. August 15th is their independence day.

Tae-Sun, then, compared the size of his country and the number of inhabitants to that of the USA.

South Korea 38,691 sq. miles 50 million inhabitants

USA 3,900,000 sq. miles 319 million inhabitants

He also showed a picture of an ordinary home in the USA and the high-riser where he lives with his family.

Busan, SK, is his home, to the South East of the country. Its population is around 3.5 million inhabitants. Seoul, the capital city, is to the North West. There were pictures of a beautiful yet crowded beach, where people rent tents for the summer, and there are vendors walking around the tents selling tasty, yummy food. The Fireworks Festival in Busan is always in October, this year, it will be Oct. 24th and 25th. The fireworks come from ships on the river, and from the bridge. The Festival is so big that it can be seen from Japan.

The South Korean peninsula is divided by the Major and Minor mountains from North to South.

The Buddhists temples are places not to miss. Find them in “templestays.com”. They are places where one goes to meet oneself, to connect with oneself, to throw away thoughts and rest. It is an experience not to be missed.

Tae-Sung then talked about his school. The schools for boys are separated from the schools for girls. Students wear uniforms, they attend school between 8 am to 9 pm. At 6 pm, they have dinner; then, they have self-study time, music, art. Students have no choice of subjects; students are always in the same room, the teachers are the ones that go from one classroom to another. Students can choose to attend Art, Music or language schools, but to be accepted they have to be very good.

Boys have to have their hair cut short, very short; there is lots of competition; students are smart, but it is depressing because of requirements and demands.

About his family, his mother is a Teacher of English, and a nurse. She works at the airport. Her hobby is to study interior decoration.

His father works for the government. His hobbies are ships, maps, writing books, and Korean politics.

His brother attended the University of SEBU, Philippines. He returned home, however, and now is learning Japanese in Shinala, South Korea. He was also a Rotary exchange student in Japan, but his stay was cut short due to the Tsunami.

Before coming to Iowa, Tae-Sung was in Maine for a year, as an exchange student.

He started learning English with his parents, and also at school, in 1st grade.

Tae-Sung was asked what he will do when he returns home. He wants to use his knowledge of English.

It was then 7:55 am. President Casey thanked Tae-Sung, and mentioned that a book will be donated to a school in his name.

President Casey Cook opened the meeting at 7:05 am. He had awards to present to several club members, himself included, for having introduced new members to the club. He called Deb, Myrene, Jim Peterson, Sue Cronin, and himself. Everyone received one mention, except for Jim, who received two. President Casey thanked all of them.

President Casey also mentioned that D6000 is growing in membership. He introduced Bill Koellner, West Liberty, DG Assistant and D6000 Polio Fund Raising Chair. Bill congratulated the club for being 100% Paul Harris; he went on to say that now all Iowa City Rotary Clubs are 100% Paul Harris. Bill reminded us there are several levels of giving:

1 a Rotarian every year. $100.

2 a Rotarian every year: $1,000.

At this point, Bill congratulated Nancy Pacha for being $1,000 per year donor.

At the past District Conference, Gary Pacha, Deb and John Ockenfels, Jim Peterson, and Karin Franklin joined that level of giving to TRF.

Nancy thanked for the award. She mentioned the importance of service, of giving back to the community; said our club believes in the importance of serving, in Service Above Self, as is evident in the Global Grants and the community service the club has participated in / is participating in. We need money for TRF Annual Fund to be able to subsidize projects world-wide.

Another award was handed out. The Integrity Award was presented to Jim Swaim, for serving above and beyond business and private lives code of ethics. Since Jim was then in Washington, DC, it was presented to him at this meeting.

President Casey thanked Mark Patton for being present at the District Conference representing the RC of Iowa City AM. He also acknowledged the presence of Janet Coester, “an old Iowa City AM member who is visiting us today”.

The Sergeant-at-Arms gave his weekly Report. After mentioning the letters of the alphabet that were complete (i.e. all the Rotarians whose family name begins with that letter were present), he read the make-ups.

President Casey asked Randy Willman if there were any Rotarians in the news.

*Mike reminded everybody that there is still time to volunteer for the Golf Tournament on Monday, May 19th. He mentioned that this year they are going to serve steak.

*It was also mentioned that the Pre-Registration price of $125 for the 2015 District Conference was extended till Tuesday, May 20th. Thanks to Mark Patton, the same rate was extended to the other Iowa City Rotary Clubs. Write the checks to: District Conference 6000, 2015, and give the check to Mike Messier.

*It was also mentioned that a “think tank” for the Can Do Project will meet at Brueggers tomorrow, Wednesday 14th.

Happy Bucks

X There were many happy Rotarians, given that this part of the meeting took 25 minutes.

To mention one: West Liberty Rotary Club raised $60,000 during their bi-annual auction.

Program

Liz introduced the speaker, Joan Kjaer.

Joan presented “World Canvas”, to which she is the Director. It was in 2009 that she joined the UI international Programs, under which umbrella World Canvas is. She mentioned that she is very happy in this position. The programs are intellectually rich. Any topic may be presented, as long as it have an international angle. She said ideas or topics are welcome. The programs and all the pertinent information are at their website. The meetings take place at the Senate Chamber, 2nd floor, Old Capitol. The programs will start again in the fall.

This Friday, May 16th, the program will be “Language of the Brain”.

Another program was about Artificial Intelligence. It was mentioned that in five years, the person will think, and the computer will respond.

Joan mentioned that she pairs guests from different disciplines, to make the programs more interesting. It is also a way to introduce people, professors who see the subject from different points of view, and they may not know each other, even though they work for the same university.

President Casey Cook announced that the Can Do project that occurred over the weekend was a great success. Several members reported on cash donations collected. Casey encouraged everyone to wear their Rotary pin; for those who forgot, they had the opportunity to put a dollar in the Happy Buck hat at their table.

· Over $1,400 was collected by club members and sent to the Rotary Foundation for Polio Plus.

· A planning meeting for the year-end meeting and District 6000 governor gavel passing will occur today at 8:00am.

· The winners of the CHS and WHS Rotary scholarship to Interact members were announced. CHS: Hannah Langenfeld and WHS Emily Starman.

· New members are encouraged to be greeters at upcoming meetings

· Scribes are needed to take notes/minutes for the upcoming months. A template will be posted on the web site that volunteers can utilize.

· Dishwashers are needed for upcoming meetings.

· Liz Nichols announced that she and her husband would be the first host family for the girl from Germany next year. The student will go to CHS; Liz will submit paperwork to the school today.

Happy Bucks

Several Happy Bucks were donated for various reasons.

Presentation

A check for $250 was presented to Ann Bell who is the author of several books in a project called Read With Your Future Fans. The funds will provide several copies of sports related books to be given to children who need additional support in learning to read.

Program

Pam Ehly shared with the group a process for engaging in a book talk as the program of the day. April is magazine month in Rotary so this was the last of several programs related to literacy. Rotarians shared a favorite book with fellow club members at their table. Pat Schnack collected a list of favorite books and will bring to the group in the future.

President Casey Cook interviewed new member Rebecca Schultz. Rebecca lives in Lisbon, but grew up in Wautoma, Wisconsin, the “Christmas Tree Capital of the World.” She recently left the University of Iowa Foundation to join her husband in their family-owned business in Cedar Rapids repairing stringed instruments.

The greeter for this morning’s meeting was Pam Ehly. President Casey called the meeting to order at 7:05 am. Chris Knapp led us in song.

President Casey called on Sandy Kray to ask her “What Jazzes you up?” Sandy’s main passion is Fund Raising. One of her favorites are the Christmas Tree Fundraiser.

Guests and Visiting Rotarians: Phil Peterson, Cedar Rapids Downtown; Pat Barron, West Chester, PA; Glenn Martin, President of the Rotaract Club of Iowa City. The Rotaract Club was chartered on January 20, 2014.

Announcements:

Myrene reminded everyone that the month opener will be at Donnelly’s Monday March 3, at 5:15 pm or when you get off work.

John Ockenfel’s District Conference meeting tonight February 25 at the Kirkwood Room 5:15 pm.

Mike Messier announced that the Golf Outing for the Community Foundation will be held May 19 and as always we can use volunteers,

Can Do meeting will be held Thursday March 6, 2014, 7:30 am at Panera’s

Board meeting will be held this Thursday February 27, 2014.

Peggy Doerge announced there will be a year ender meeting at Henry Sabin School on Wednesday February 28, 2014 at 12:00 noon.

Happy Bucks:

There were many people happy today. Many members shared time with grandchildren. Several members attended the Grant Seminar Saturday in West Liberty.

Speaker:

Matthew J. Hayek who is a partner in the Hayek, Brown, Moreland & Smith, LLP. Matt was born in Iowa City in 1969. He received a B.A. with honors from the University of Michigan Residential College in 1992. He served as a Peace Corp volunteer in Bolivia from 1992 to 1994. He received a J. D. from Michigan Law School 1997. Matt practiced commercial litigation at firms in Atlanta and Chicago. He joined the firm in 2001 and became a partner in 2004. He holds an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell.

In addition to his law practice, Matt he has dedicated significant time and energy to the community. He is the past chair of two advisory commissions for the City of Iowa City and is past president of the board of directors of the Englert Civic Theatre. In 2007 he was elected to the City Council and since 2010 has served as Mayor of Iowa City. He serves on the Council’s Economic Development Committee and is the City’s representative to various intergovernmental and public-private organizations.

Projects:

Matt spoke about the Economic Development of Iowa City and that were about 3 years into a 10 year plan. There has been considerable amount of investment in construction in the downtown area to revitalize the city. Some of the items that have been put in place to help Iowa City if the 21 ordinance, the old Wells Fargo site with the condos and retail space. Midwest One revitalization of the main building and the building of a new structure.

The relocation of the water treatment plant will allow the city to develop the area and “Reengage the River”.

The engagement of The University of Iowa at work rebuilding many new structures after the flood of 2008.

The Towncrest Area has been enhanced with the new medical buildings

Sycamore Mall continues to be a challenge to find stores that will continue to enhance the community. The one addition was the market in Sycamore Mall that replaces the outside market.

There has been a mortgage project that has allowed the University and Iowa City to buy houses, fix them, and have them ready for rental houses.

The 1105 project helped to combine several organizations together in a building that was donated for $1.00 by the city. The 1105 project has greatly helped the community.

Flood mitigation will be a major focus as it has been almost 6 year since the flood. The raising of Dubuque Street along with a new Park bridge will be the focus in the next few years.

City Parks and school gyms are also a major concern for the community. The city will be working more on neighborhood parks. The parks will have more play equipment and green space. The school gyms will be expanded to host more activities for school as well as for the community.

Financials

Matt stated that we were of Four Star rating there are only four cities that have this rating. This rating allows us to lower our costs for borrowing money.

In 2013 there was changed to tax structure on commercial property. This will be a major effect on the amount of money collected on taxes. The amount of money could be as high a 50M within the next decade that could be lost to the City. The city has taken measures to handle the lack of money coming into the city by creating an emergency fund and eliminating 30 positions through attrition. There has been no layoffs.

Matt closed with Iowa City is moving in the right direction with the continuing of the arts projects, new residential and hotel construction, the right community involvement and the work of our leaders of the city.

Susan Murty was the greeter for today. President Casey called the meeting order at 7:00 AM.

Chris Knapp led us in song.

HAPPY BUCKS:

Many Thanks went out to Elaine who was able to get connecting flights for the club members that went to Guatemala for Iowa Most. The Ockenfel’s , Knapp’s, and Tae Sun went to the Muscatine club on Monday Feb. 17, to hear International President Elect Gary Huang. There were many other happy members.

ANNOUNCEMNETS:

February 23 is the Birthday of Rotary. Past International President Ray Klinginsmith with be having a Birthday Party in Kirksville, MO February 22 and February 23, 2014.

Saturday February 22, there is a Grant Seminar in West Liberty 9:00 am -2:00 pm. Bryan Clemons offered rides for club members interested in going.

Wednesday February 19, there will be a free concert at City High at 7:30 pm featuring Michael Schnack and Ann Elise Schoenecker.

Dance for Humanity will be held February 22, 2014 at Old Brick.

Bowl for Kid’s Sake is coming up March 1. The Rotarian team is “Rotarians from the Gutter”.

Sign up for the Iowa Ladies Football Academy is now available at Iowa Ladies Football Academy.com.

May 2, & May 3 is District Conference in Ames, Iowa at the Gateway Hotel.

Board Meeting February 27, 2014.

President Cook called on Hazel Seabra who is from Michigan, to ask her “What Jazzes you up”? Questions were: Do you like your job? Keys to eventful retirement. She was asked to choose one. She chose “I like My Job”. Hazel is the Professor of The College of Pharmacy. One of the reasons that she really likes her job is that she has had the opportunity to change positions and advance at the right times in her life. She currently is the Director of Admissions for the College of Pharmacy. This entails working with the curriculum and assessments. She says that success is built on the ability to talk to people. Her first trip to Xicotepec was due to the fact that Jim Peterson had ask her to go. She said this was one of the most rewarding experiences that has helped her in her career.

SPEAKER

The speaker for today was Dr. Don Racheter, President of the Public Interest Institute since 2005, the Public Policy Research Institute, or “Think Tank: located on the campus of Iowa Wesleyan College in Mount Pleasant, IA. Dr. Racheter has been a long-time activist in the local, state and national political process, and a leader of such organizations as the Iowa Conference of Political Scientists, the Iowa Association of Scholars, the Iowa Association of Political Scientist, the Midwest and American Political Science. He is a decorated Lt. Colonel, retired after 26 years in the US Amy and Reserves graduated with honors from the Univ. of Michigan receiving a MA and PH.D in Political Science from the Univ. of Iowa. Served as Professor of Political Science for Central College in Pella, IA and Director of its Pre-Law Program until his retirement in 2005.

Dr. Racheter said that the earlier that you get involved, the more influence you will have. This concept is known as the” Magnifier Effect. If you exert participation, it will be seen as more than what you have participated. We have a great opportunity in Iowa being the first caucus to lead the way.

Our founding fathers looked a politics as duty, today it is a well-paying position.

He stated that closer to home there was a grandfather who was unhappy with parking fees at the University OF Iowa Hospitals. He started Gramps for Ramps and the parking rate was cut from $18 per day to $10 per day.

He encouraged everyone to write to their congressman. If you do not receive the response you wanted, write again. It is the duty and responsibility of citizenship to participate in public policy.

Two member from the Interact club were present today. They announced the Dance for Humanity would be held February 22 from 7:30-10:00PM at Old Brick Church in IC. The cost is $10 for Adults and $5 for Students. Nancy Pacha also stated that the band Fireside would be there in addition to live music form the UI Latin Jazz Ensemble. President Cook asked that the last 5 minutes of the meeting be allocated for the opportunity to sell to club members.

Announcements: Greeters are needed. President Cook encouraged all new members to sign up. Dish washers are need for several weeks in the near future.

Chris Knapp announced that Tae Sun would be moving in with Vernette and him on February 15. We need 6 host families for the upcoming year and we need every club members help by going to their churches and place of employment to find host families. We appreciate any help that members can give the youth exchange committee.

Many people were happy today and contributed to Happy Bucks.

President Cook announced that we would have a Fireside Chat Panel today.

The Panel members were: Tom Langenfeld, Valerie Martin, Margy Winkler, Vernette Knapp, and Rebecca Schultz from the Noon club. The panel were asked four questions: What got you interested in Rotary? What would you like to learn from Rotary? What can the club do to help you meet these goals? What obstacles do you have in meeting these goals?

One of the major question coming out of the panel discussion was the need for more information on the website. Dick Huber, Rebecca Schultz, and Valerie said they may be interested in helping with the website. President Cook stated that he would take the information to the board to talk about the possibility of having a website task force. Other topics of mention was how GSE , Youth Exchange, learning about Grants, attending Foundation meetings, and District conference can help enhance the level of learning about Rotary.

The next Grant Seminar is in West Liberty on February 22, 2014 from 9:00 am-2:00 pm. Check out the District Website to sign up for this seminar.

The club inducted two new members. Hazel Seaba is in Pharmacy Education at the University of Iowa. Sandy Kray is a Support Service Specialist at the Center for Disabilities and Development at the University of Iowa.

Mark Patton announced that there are more bowlers needed for Bowl for Kid’s Sake on March 1.

Deb Pullin Van-Auken announced that there will be a 4-H Gala on March 1. She passed out flyers regarding this event.

Chris Knapp announced that Amber Hoffman, Youth Exchange Student 2002-2003 and District 6000 Rotex member, was inducted into the Rotary Club of Centerville, Wednesday, January 29, 2014. She is the first Rotex member of any Iowa Rotary club.

Nenu mentioned to get your reservations in for 2014 International Convention in Australia.

Liz Nichols stated that the Knapp’s will host TaeSuen Yun beginning February 15, 2014. Liz requested that the club become more involved with find host family for the coming year.

John Ockenfels announced that all of the Assistant District Governors have been selected. John also mentioned that district-wide, there are still some clubs that have not yet selected their President Elects that will be participating in the multi-district PETS in Rochester, MN, March 7 & 8.

Nancy Pacha stated that the annual Dance for Humanity will be February 22, 2014 and thanked the two Rotaract students for coming today.

Dr. Dymerski joined the University Research Foundation in 2011, focusing on Intellectual Property discovery and new venture creation. Prior to joining the U of I Research Foundation, Paul had broad experience in a wide range of technology commercialization and new venture projects in an academic environment as an Executive Mentor for the Entrepreneurial Center in the Fisher School of Business at the Ohio State University.

Paul also has extensive experience as an entrepreneur, creating a number of new ventures in the biotech, software, IT, environmental, and pharmaceutical services industries. As CEO of Applied Biomolecular Technologies, Inc., Paul was involved in proof-of concept, prototype development and commercialization road-mapping for numerous biotechnology clients. Paul has a PhD. in chemistry from Case Western Reserve and an MS from the University of Idaho. He has performed research at the University of Toronto, Cornell University and the State of New York Health Dept. Paul is married and has two sons.

Paul talked about “Rethinking University Economic Development” Three items were discussed:

Take the engagement across the state - Project skills, expertise and information; Partner with local, state and regional economic development organizations.

The principle behind the Research Foundation is to put into the public domain the results of federally funded research. This means that where there is an opportunity to develop technology, medicines and intellectual property that can benefit society the foundation helps bring these developments to fruition. The foundation is the result of the Feinstein Act passed by congress.

Paul reported that there are 25 Ventures in the Foundation’s pipeline. The student are usually from the following disciplines - MBA, Engineering and Law. They are helping to create one year business plans, raise money, to work with electronics, software and plastics.

Nenu Piragine indicated that Rotary was ahead in the United 10millioncharitymiles.com vote. As of the meeting on the 31st Rotary was about 3000 miles ahead of the nearest competitor. The miles give-away to charities ends December 31.

Casey Cook announced a $1370 net on the nut sales. Brian Adamec sold the most with 33. About 55% of club members participated. The proceeds will go to support club-sponsored youth programs.

Judy Meyer talked about her innovative Judy’s Jammies project which she started with her Coralville NC Rotary Club. There are about 400 needs in the Iowa City area every year for fresh night wear for domestic violence victims. Both adult and kid sizes can be used, but the emphasis is on providing abused women with pajamas. Very often battered women leave in a hurry in an abusive situation and do not bring clothing with them. The project buys new flannel jammies mostly at as much as a 70% discount through the project’s partnerships with Target and Kmart. The Coralville Club and Meyer have raised about $600 so far and get the pj’s for around $10 to $15 each with their discount. Anyone who would like to contribute new pajamas can buy flannel pjs in sizes large to 2x. Leave the tag in.

Remember the Month Opener is at Donnelly’s at 5:15 until whenever on Monday evening.

Chris Knapp announced that 119 people will be attending the 25th Anniversary banquet on January 14. Thanks to the whole committee for putting together a great event. There will be no morning meeting the 14th.

What Jazzes You Up with Karin Franklin

Karin Franklin grew up in Latham, NY just outside Albany and lived there until she was 20. She learned the value of participating and giving back to the community from her mother. Her older sister was also a mentor and taught her to be strong in order to survive (the sibling relationship).

Karin enjoyed a long career in community planning for the City of Iowa City and is now retired. She became interested in this field when she spent time in Pittsburgh and became interested in how that city used public-private partnerships to help out poorer neighborhoods. Karin obtained her bachelor’s degree at UI, but it took about 14 years in between work and family responsibilities. She studied Russian, political science and American Studies and got her degree in American Studies.

Karin always wanted to go into the foreign service and ultimately Rotary has provided her with the opportunity to travel and be of service internationally. The first RI conference she attended was in Barcelona and it was a marvelous experience. She has also been involved in Iowa MOST, FAMSCO, and was the Noon Club’s president a few years ago.

Karin has much community volunteer experience beyond Rotary. She is a member of the Oaknoll and UI Community Credit Union Boards and the Mercy Foundation. She is chair of the Credit Union board now and has been on that board for 12 years.

Karin has a variety of hobbies. She likes to cook, read and is a member of two book clubs. She loves to travel, attend UI women’s basketball and she enjoys bicycling.

Happy Bucks wound up the meeting with people talking about the volunteer commitments that have been most meaningful.

Jack Cameron declared that we had 100% attendance at this unofficial meeting.

Announcements:

Randy Willman gave a shout-out to Dave Parsons and his group for playing Christmas music downtown on December 23rd.

Myrene Hoover suggested that we all click on United’s 10 Million Charity Miles giveaway at the UAL website and vote between now and December 31 for Rotary as your favorite charity to be given a portion of 10 million miles based on the number of votes received as a non-profit partner of UAL. Rotary will also earn 25000 miles as a participating non-profit.

Myrene also discovered at Rotary has had a number of mottos over the years starting in 1911 with the motto: “He Profits Most Who Serves Best.” That motto later morphed into the more PC “One Profits Most Who Serves Best.”

Pat Schnack let the group know that Nancy Pacha’s mother has died. Nancy had some difficulty getting home because of the weather and has almost immediately turned around and gone back out east to be with her other daughter in New England. Our thoughts and prayers are with Nancy and her family.

Chris Knapp announced that we need another 2 people to have an even ten tables completely filled at our 25th Anniversary celebration on January 14.

For Happy Bucks we shared our worst and best gifts given or received for Christmas.

Program:

Brad Langguth, Karin Franklin and Deb Dunkhase talked about giving meaningful service. Casey Cook described volunteer service as using one’s best talents to make things happen in the community. Casey sees service as being a series of concentric circles: The inner circle keeps the club going with doing the behind-the-scenes stuff on a weekly basis. The next circle out is the service that supports our various projects such as Youth Exchange, Can Do, and grant giving. The third circle involves Rotarians in the broader community and international service, not necessarily just the things that we officially support. There is a whole constellation of community and international volunteer efforts that are not official Rotary projects but that are compatible with Rotary service ideals that we as individuals support. The panel represented some of our more active community volunteers among our membership.

Deb Dunkhase initially got involved in community volunteering when she started junior high in a school that was in a community large enough for a town library. She saw that there were no story times at that library and she volunteered to start story times.

The Iowa Children’s Museum offers between 500 to 700 volunteer opportunities every year. Some are fulfilled by active Rotarians. For example, the Downtown Rotary provides a few volunteers every family free night to help with activities and crowd control. There are sometimes as many as 1000 people in the museum on those free nights. The AM Rotary has had volunteers help the ICM put together new exhibits. Volunteers see the impact of their work directly while serving the ICM because it is so evident in the experience that kids have at the Museum. There are many other opportunities to volunteer for specific ICM projects such as assisting at one of the four special celebrations each year, or to be a “Playology” volunteer.

Karin Franklin stressed that in retirement especially people want to know what they can do, and there really is no lack of ways to volunteer if one is proactive in Iowa City. Her first volunteer activity as a child was helping her mother to take flowers to people in their church family. Karin has particularly become engaged at the emotional level through the many trips she has taken as an Iowa MOST volunteer. It is not always necessary to travel abroad or two a developing country in order to serve internationally. She has helped with FAMSCO loading supplies onto helicopters and trucks. That is an easy way for almost anyone to get involved in an international project that is useful and great fun.

Brad Langguth emphasized that one can set the volunteer experience to vary depending on your time of life and skills. He and his wife started out as young parents helping with Preucil, school and church activities that their kids were involved in. Later his volunteer activity changed to fit his changing circumstances, and varied also between more administrative functions and more hands-on functions. You can pick your volunteer experience based on whether you are more interested in hands-on or more planning and over-sight roles. There are needs at all levels just depending on the organization and the situation in that specific group. Some of the most meaningful volunteer assignments for Brad have been hands-on overseas projects such as in Haiti right after the big earthquake with a Jimmy Carter Build for Habitat for Humanity, and a trip with Blessed Ministries to South Africa last year. You come back seeing things from another perspective. These experiences, especially the hands-on volunteer work change the world and you for the better.

There were questions and concerns about how to find out what is going on in the community, both in terms of events and volunteer opportunities. RSVP keeps track of the volunteer opportunities in the Johnson County area and the Cultural Corridor website keeps track of a lot of events. However, there is nothing that goes through a bunch of area websites and tries to put all of this information together in one place. Many saw that as a need in the community that would be do-able in this age of technology.

AM Rotary is all over the District 6000 newsletter. Sue Cronin wrote a great article. Xicotepec is featured as are Chris and Vernette Knapp their official status as DG Nominee. It also was announced that AM Rotary stands at 7th in the District in attendance at 80%.

Rotarians in the News: Katie Langenfeld was mentioned in a newspaper article on Bridges to Prosperity project. Dave Parsons editorialized about the problem of street potholes in the area. Rick Dobyns read a humorous rebuttal letter on behalf of the City of Iowa City on the potholes issue. He said potholes should be considered “traffic routing intervention” especially on East Washington Ave.

See Roger Christian to sign up to help out with dishwashing on Jan. 28. The other dates for the next couple months are filled.

Liz Nichols mentioned that Tae Sung is still in need of a second host family for the second half of his stay. See Liz or Andreas with ideas of people to contact.

Pat Schnack will be filling out the Meals on Wheels schedule right after first of year. See Pat to volunteer.

Program:

John Kenyon, UNESCO City of Literature Executive Director for the Iowa City project, was introduced by Deb Galbraith. John is a former editor for The Daily Iowan, has worked for The Gazette and then helped launch the Corridor Business Journal before he became the director for the City of Literature here in Iowa City.

The Creative Cities Network was started by UNESCO in 2004 with Edinburgh Scotland as the first City of Literature. UNESCO is a division of the United Nation, what John called the “softer” side of the UN. Early on there were World Heritage sites designated by UNESCO and there are now over 900 of them world-wide. By 2004, however, the organization wanted to expand to cities with distinctive cultural contributions in crafts, visual arts, culinary arts, performing arts and literature.

Edinburgh became the first City of Literature because it was the home of such great writers as Robert Burns, RL Stevenson, Sir Walter Scott and JK Rowling. A successful City of Literature must also have an environment where literature thrives through its educational and cultural programs, libraries, bookstores, and museums. Iowa City fit the criteria, was entered into the competition to be considered and ended up the third City of Literature throughout the world. It was beaten out for the second position by Melbourne, Australia. Now Dublin, Reykjavik, Norwich, and Krakow have been added to the mix. The other arts subdivisions with cities representing these areas include Crafts and Folk Art, Film, Design, Gastronomy, Media Arts, and Music.

Cities earn the designation from UNESCO but receive no financial compensation from the UN program. The individual cities must determine the programs and the support level. Our City of Literature program has been supported with a 501(c3) status since 2009 with several area foundational partners including the City of Iowa City, the University of Iowa, Iowa City Public Library, Coralville, North Liberty, Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce, Johnson County, and the Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The City of Literature Vision is to establish each City of Literature as a place that invites citizens to discover and share its vibrant literary culture. The Mission is to celebrate and support literature on a local, regional, national, and international level, connecting readers and writers through the power of story.

Our own community is so strong in the literary front that what our local program tries to do is to fill in the gaps by practicing advocacy and to help people network with literature and cultural themes. For example, the City of Literature helped the UAY to get in touch with the Iowa Youth Writing Program at UI to collaborate on a project. The biggest thing our local program does is to offer programs on the literary theme. On UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day (April 23) there will be a Community Book Talk. Paul Engle Day (Oct 12) this year included a high school sophomore essay contest around the state and scholarships were given to the winners, including one year free at UI to the top student. The Paul Engle Prize is awarded to an essay writer from anywhere in the country who has best used his or her skills to elevate literature. The Hawkeye Readers is a joint project of the City of Literature and the UI football program to have players read in 3rd grade classrooms throughout the Iowa City district. “On the Fly” is a videotaped interview series featuring visiting authors. The City of Literature has also sponsored the Little Free Libraries (of which there are now between 40 and 50 in the area). The Book Marks statues distributed around the area a couple years ago was also a City of Literature project.

A very large endeavor was taking over the Iowa City Book Festival from the UI Library. In 2013 it was completely taken over by the City of Literature and was moved from summer months to four days in October and moved downtown. This year the Festival brought 36 authors to town from all over the country and featured 25 local and regional authors.

The next City of Literature event will be January 17-19 with the “One Book Two Book” children’s literature program. Loren Long who illustrated Obama’s “Of Thee I Sing” will be featured. The program gives the opportunity to recognize the writing of elementary kids. One student from each school in Iowa City is selected to read a piece of original writing at the annual banquet. These students are coached on how to read their work and they do it with great poise after a little coaching.

Dave Parsons made a valiant effort to teach “Smile” in three-quarter time and hopes that we will have it down by the time we meet for our 25th Anniversary.

We celebrated the transfer of Karin Franklin from IC Noon to AM Rotary. Karen has been a participant in the MOST missions six times. She is the retired Director of Planning and Community Development for the City of Iowa City.

We voted on next year’s officers. Myrene Hoover was voted the incoming president-elect. Thank you to both Myrene and Scott Enyart for agreeing to be nominated. The new members of the Board of Directors are Ron Logsden and Nenu Piragine (7/1/14 - 6/30/17). Sue Cronin (alternate) will complete Myrene Hoover's remaining term from 7/1/14 - 6/30/15. The new bylaws changes were approved by acclamation.

Myrene talked about the message from RI President, Ron Burton in honor of Nelson Mandela. Mandela was committed to those in need and was given Rotary’s highest award for his service to humanity. He donated his $100,000 prize to his children’s foundation.

Thanks were expressed to Peggy Doerge to hosting our December Month Opener again, and for all the participants in the corn bread cook-off. It was a dead heat on who won the title of best corn bread maker.

If you have not sent in your reservation for the 25th Anniversary on January 14, do so ASAP. Nenu suggested that if you are going to Australia to the RI convention you have to the end of the month to get a better price. Refer to an article in the October Rotarian about the Sydney RI convention.

Brian Adamec announced that all the nuts are sold thanks to a generous buy by Liz Loeb.

Roger Christian indicated that there are some dishwashing slots open in January and February. See Roger to sign up.

Program

Dr. Dan Caplan spoke about outreach efforts of the Department of Preventative and Community Dentistry at the UI Dental School.

There are several components to outreach within the School of Dentistry:

1. Extramural Program which sends dental students throughout the community, state, and world. Included in this effort is the Geriatric Dental Clinic.

There is some UI dental outreach in almost all counties of Iowa. The 2 major goals of the extramural program are to help students gain a broad understanding of the kinds of dental issues they will find in practice, and to meet the special needs of those who don’t have resources. All 4th year dental students are now rotated into extramural activities for 10 of their 40 weeks of training. In Iowa there are 12 sites. There are 5 sites nationally and 3 sites internationally (Denmark, Netherlands and UK). There are also some non-traditional outreach opportunities in India and Cambodia. The European outreach opportunities send 3 dental students to these countries and 3 from Denmark, Netherlands and the UK come to the UI Dental School in exchange.

Within Iowa the dental students go to community health centers and private practices in small communities throughout the state.

2. Special care clinic. There are 2 units within the dental school itself: Geriatric and Special Needs Clinic is within the walls of the Dental School, and then there is a Geriatric Mobile Dental Van which goes out to nursing homes. Currently the van serves 10 nursing homes in eastern Iowa.

3. Project SEALED—Service, Engagement, and Life Career Education in Dentistry. Goals of the SEALED Program: oral healthcare for underserved kids; service learning for dental students; to spark interest in dental careers in young people throughout Iowa. Allamakee County has three locations where the SEALED program is in place within the school setting. This program is a partnership between the County and the Dental School. The dental students work hard to create an environment to make a child’s first experience with a dental exam a good one.

The Dental School has also participated in Rotary’s Xicotepec Project. For 3 years dental student, Julie Reynolds, volunteered to go to Xicotepec with the District 6000 project

Dr. Caplan plugged the UI dental program to attract new patients for the student and faculty clinics. There are multiple levels of pricing and payment plans available. Right now the School can especially use denture patients and patients with missing teeth so students can get experience working with these special conditions.

AM Rotary not have a December Board meeting. We are trying to develop a processes to establish duties for the board and committees. Casey would like all committee chairs to provide committee descriptions in the next Rotary File. We will have a housekeeping meeting soon where Board members will discuss 3 action steps planned for each of their areas of service. Each member should plan to select at least one committee, and each committee will develop at least one action step to be completed by the end of the club year.

Myrene Hoover distributed a list of websites for contributions for Philippine Typhoon relief.

Roger Christian announced the need for some dishwashers during January.

Chris Knapp gave a 25th Anniversary update: 28 club members and 19 guests (83) were signed up with 9 PDG’s and assistants expecting to attend. Want to get to 100 plus, so continue to sign up.

Remember the Month Opener at Peggy Doerge’s house on Monday, Dec 9 at 5:30 p.m. The event will feature a corn bread taste-off for entries provided by Jim Peterson and Peggy Doerge. Come for chili and corn bread and a lot of good conversation.

First Book of Johnson Co. is doing a speed read Friday night at Children’s Museum. Deb Dunkhase is collecting for it money for it. Shelter House is doing an event Saturday night at the Children’s Museum for homeless kids, a toy giveaway.

Brian Adamec announced that Dec 3 was “Giving Tuesday” and suggested we “give” by buying some of the extra cans of nuts.

Rotarians in the News

Rick Dobyns was pictured in an article on diversity on the Iowa City City Council in the Press Citizen.

Speaker

Sean O'Harrow, the Executive Director of the University of Iowa Museum of Art was the speaker on December 3. He started at UI in 2010 after serving as the Director of the Figge Museum in Davenport. Because of his experience at Figge has came to UI with a great understanding of the UI Museum of Art collection and its significance. He indicated that UI’s collection has long been considered one of the four or five most important university art museums in the country and has an international reputation. At UI O’Harrow has been actively involved in the FEMA discussions concerning rebuilding the museum. He has helped to create new venues for the museum collection. Following the final denial from FEMA O’Harrow and his staff are still moving forward with new building plans.

After the 2008 flood UI appealed to FEMA five times. Being denied is not entirely bad because it avoids the many strings that FEMA would have attached to the deal. FEMA would have required the building to go back to its original state and it would not have been possible to insure the valuable art collection in a building put in the same location as the last museum. The 1969 building was difficult to operate in a 21st century environment, especially when considering student dynamics. Now that the collection has been temporarily disbursed the University is better able to fulfill its mission to serve the state as a whole because important pieces, such as the Pollok mural have been available on display in Davenport and Des Moines, and is about to go out on tour to the Getty Museum. Before the highest number of people to view our exhibits has been 41,000 per year. Now those numbers have gone up to 146,000 in one year, and with the Getty exhibit the viewing of the Pollock is expected to exceed 400,000. This puts the UI Museum of Art and its collections on the map nationally and internationally.

When the building was denied by FEMA the University went to the Board of Regents to start the process for a new museum facility that is more relevant to students and staff than old one. Right now a committee is putting together a process for an RFP to go out to developers for a public-private partnership to develop a facility for the new art museum. Private developer will provide a piece of land that the University will lease for a number of years before they change to actual ownership of the land. Using a private development is a fast and efficient way of taking care of the new building, most probably at a lower cost and in less time than it would have taken had we developed the project with FEMA. The museum staaff expect that by this coming summer the project will be under way and a private developer will have been selected.

In the meantime the UI Museum of Art is able to work with other institutions including the world’s richest museum, the Getty Museum. Ironically, the flood has enabled UI to get on the radar with the Getty and to begin working in the “big leagues” of art museums on specific projects. The Pollock mural is being refurbished at the Getty through that museum’s world-famous conservation department. Between March and June 2014 the mural will be on display at the Getty Museum. After that it will be sent on a world tour of museums until we have a new permanent home for the piece in the Iowa City area close to campus.

In the 1940’s UI developed the most important art program in the US with professional artists as the professors. Grant Wood never had an advanced degree but became a professor gaining world renown for the UI art program. This notoriety prompted Peggy Guggenheim to donate the Pollok mural to Iowa when she decided to move to Venice and needed to disburse her extensive art collection. The “Iowa Idea” was the model across the US after World War II and across the Commonwealth as well for university art programs.

President Casey talked about the Gettysburg address, and the well-known line: Government of the people, for the people, and from the people. Jim Peterson remarked that the emphasis was on “people”.

Since November is “The Rotary Foundation” month, President Casey asked Nancy Pacha to talk about it. Nancy mentioned that she started investing in TRF after she participated at a National Immunization Day in India. Nancy was inspired to go by her grandmother, who suffered polio and was left with a profound limp. In India, Nancy saw the incredible poverty of the people, their basic needs not satisfied, the scarcity of opportunity among other things. She realized the impact Matching Grants can have to make this a better world.

President Casey received a letter from RI President Ron Burton to help fund Rotary efforts to help the Philippines after the Super Typhoon Haylan. To make your donations, please go to www.shelterboxusa.org.

Nan: Diversity in Rotary: at first, Rotarians filled in Classifications, with the request not to have too many of just one. It was done to promote diversity, for members of a club to be truly representative of the community.

President Casey mentioned D6000 Program of Recognition, Guardian of Integrity.

The first recipient of such an award was ……, from our club. The 2012-2013 distinction went to Pat Snack, also a member of our club.

Proposals are being accepted to nominate this year’s Guardian of Integrity in our club.

Announcements.

Roger mentioned the need for volunteers to do dishes after the meeting.

Liz reminded members that we still need one or two host families for our Inbound, preferably on the East Side of town.

Vernette requested members to answer the invitation for the 25th Anniversary dinner by December 1st at the latest.

Can Do Project. There is going to be a meeting.

Elections for Board Members will be in December.

Happy bucks. There were lots of happy members!

Mark Patton introduced the Speaker, Prof. Craig Just, an engineer professor, a former member of our club.

The topic: World Toilet Day. It was sanctioned by the United Nations this year, “in an effort to make sanitation a global development priority”.

Facts:

There are 2.6 million people in the world today with no access to basic sanitation, in spite of the Millennium Development Goal to cut that number in half.

--According to the World Health Organization, the lowest coverage:

1. Sub-Saharan Africa. Only 31% will have adequate sanitation.

2. Southern Asia:36%

3. Oceania or islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean: 56%

According to the WHO, 1.1 billion people in the world relieve themselves in the open air.

This increases the risk of transmitted disease.

The Ganges river in India has 300,000 gallons of raw sewage per minute. Startling, since one teaspoon (one gram) of feces may contain

10 million viruses,

1 million bacteria,

1,000 parasitic cysts, and

100 worm eggs.

Diseases transmitted through water contaminated by human feces include:

Diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, and hepatitis.

In Africa, 115 people die every hour due to poor sanitation.

The WHO estimates that half the developing world’s people are sick with diseases associated with dirty water and bad sanitation.

The World Bank says that lack of proper sanitation results in $260 billion losses a year, on a “good day”, due to health costs and loss of output.

UNICEF reports that 2,000 children die each day from poor sanitation and contaminated water supplies.

Of the world’s 7 billion people, 6 billion have mobile phones, but only 4.5 billion have access to toilets.

Martin Mueller, guest of Carl Christensen and former Ambassadorial Scholar and Iowa MOST volunteer

Karin Franklin—IC Noon

Carrie Watson—City High Interact Advisor; Hannah Langenfeld and BJ Sullivan, City High Interact

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Deb Pullin VanAuken wrote to Casey Cook during her stay in France about the very different club meeting she attended.

Jack Tank was officially transferred from the Noon Club to our club. Casey Cook indicated that Jack is a well-known expert in the farming world and is an active supporter of Community Foundation and church activities. Welcome to Jack!

Myrene Hoover talked about Rotary news and mentioned that Rotary belongs to a global foodbanking network. We will also be doing our part in the area of hunger relief when we make our community grant awards.

We will have unofficial meetings on Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

Chris Knapp is being strongly considered for District Governor. Let’s all support his candidacy.

Elections: We voted for next year’s president-elect and directors at the November 12 meeting.

ROTARIANS IN THE NEWS

Rick Dobyns was spotted in a picture in the paper drinking beer to celebrate defeat of the 21 only initiative. Dave Parsons was in the press talking about roundabouts. John Ockenfels and his flying group were also in the press.

SPEAKER

Mark Patton introduced State Senator Rob Hoag from Cedar Rapids. He grew up in Iowa City and attended City High. He chairs a number of committees and is a member of the State Senate Ways and Means Committee. His talk was a continuation of the discussion on climate change that was begun a couple weeks ago by our speaker, Jerry Schnor. Hoag has written a book on the subject of what we can individually and locally help stave off climate change.

There is no longer much dispute that there are too many greenhouse gasses. We are up to 400 ppm and going up 2 ppm per year. Within a generation may be at irretrievable level. The major impacts that have already been felt are extreme weather patterns and ecological disruptions. A transformative moment was flood of 2008. The consequences of climate change are awful in terms of economic hardship and tragedy. Our flood was minor compared to the major events happening world-wide where thousands of lives are lost in floods and typhoons in places like the Philippines and Pakistan. In the US unprecedented weather events linked to climate change include most recently Hurricane Sandy. We can expect to have more disasters and for the impacts to increase substantially in the coming years. None of us asked for this, but we have all got to deal with it just like we had to deal with WW II. Everyone can afford the little things that help, such as changing over to LED lighting.

We all must get ready for the big disasters through water and natural resource management; disaster relief and recovery; better managed building with floods in mind. We can deal with greenhouse gases through energy efficiency and use of renewable energy—wind, biomass, biogas, solar. Hoag noted that a new VanMeter Corp warehouse has been built to LEED gold standards and in its first year of operation the energy costs of operation were only $330 for a whole year.

More Americans should get more informed and speak up more and the need for energy efficiency and sustainability. Lots of groups need help including environmental groups and faith-based groups working on disaster relief and conservation. Two of Hoag’s favorite groups are Climate Parents and Hundred Grannies for a Livable Future. Everyone can do something.

The Month Opener will be Monday, Nov 4 at 5:15 pm at Donnelley’s as usual.

Nut sales have approached the 50% participation mark and should raise around $1200 to use for youth activities such as sponsoring RYLA participation.

WHAT JAZZES YOU UP?

Toby Hyde was in the hot seat to tell us a little bit about his life. One of the big influences in Toby’s life was his mother who taught him to always be kind to other people. Prior to working in appliance retail Toby had a number of jobs, including a stint as a lumberjack in Oregon. He bought Foster Appliance several years ago after years of working for Slager Appliance. The flood of 2008 turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Because of it Foster Appliance was able to do a more extensive remodel than they would have done otherwise.

SPEAKER

Chuck Swanson filled the group in on the status of Hancher Auditorium. He covered 3 areas: the focus on meeting the 3 pillars common to all University of Iowa programs; the season highlights; and the focus on the new building.

Hancher strongly aligns with the 3 pillars of the University mission: learning, discovery and engagement. It focuses on enriching the experience of students at the university level, K12 programs around the state, and lifelong learners through the many collaborations Hancher has fostered recently with other academic programs. For example, Hancher is working with the Center for Macular Degeneration, the College of Writing, and the Doris Duke Foundation to create a theater piece about what it means to lose sight in order particularly to help doctors to gain more compassion and insight into the process of site loss. Swanson also mentioned a collaboration in progress with the public schools to create a performance piece about cyberbullying.

With the mission pillar of discovery Hancher is working with Working Group Theater, the Colleges of Public Health and Social Work and many local groups serving the elderly to create and put on a performance piece about dealing with a parent with Alzheimer’s. Hancher has commissioned over 100 musical and theater performance pieces over the years.

In the area of public engagement Swanson mentioned a collaboration with the Engineering Department to put on an institute to develop curriculum for 7th and 8th graders on dealing with floods and recovering from them. They have also sponsored performances of the Preservation Jazz Band from New Orleans to appear at several STEM festivals in several of the communities in Iowa that suffered flooding in 2008.

This season includes Hancher’s typically diverse programming. There is always an emphasis on quality and diversity and this season is no exception. There is a particular emphasis on a mentoring program for African American youth in the community. For example, Wycliffe Gordon was scheduled to give a program and have discussions with young people at Grant Wood Elementary School.

The demolition of old Hancher recently started and the new building will soon begin to surface from the ground just up the hill and to the north of the old building. The new building will be several feet above the 500 year flood plain. The architects are Pelli Clark Pelli in New Haven, CT and locally OPN in Cedar Rapids. The new music building, in downtown Iowa City, has already begun construction. The architects on that project are LMN, Seattle, WA and Neumann Monson. New Hancher should be completed at the end of 2015 and the new music building is scheduled to be completed in summer of 2016. Both will be world-class facilities and will dramatically impact the arts scene regionally and for downtown Iowa City in particular.

Information on the 2014 Central American Project Fair is now available. The fair will be held on Jan 30 - Feb 1, 2014 in Antigua, Guatemala, a short ways from the Guatemala City La Aurora International Airport. Antigua is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with many historical buildings, fine hotels and restaurants, good shopping and dramatic views of the nearby volcanoes.

Information on the program for the fair, how to register, and lodging and transportation can be found on the website.

The project fair is an excellent way to meet Rotarians from all over Central America and to find worthy projects and project partners. It is also a great opportunity to visit Rotary project sites in Guatemala and elsewhere in Central America.

The Press Citizen featured an article on Jim Swaim who will be retiring from UAY in August. Randy Willman also noted that HD Hoover recently wrote two opinion articles, one on the UI art museum and the other on the issue of closing elementary schools. A scholarship winner from West was also mentioned in the paper which included a good word for Rotary.

Deb Dunkhase passed around the list of program chairs. Liz Nichols took June, but there is still the month of May to fill. See Deb if you’re interested.

Elaine asked that each member check directory information and get back to her with corrections.

Nenu Piragine and the Ockenfels mentioned that for next year’s Rotary International convention in Sydney, Australia, there will be a large contingency from District 6000. Plans are already in the works so check with the Ockenfels if you are interested in attending.

Casey Cook mentioned that Nenu Piragine and Vernette Knapp will take on social event planning for 2013/14. Liz Nichols volunteered to be Elaine Shalla’s assistant on club secretarial duties. We are still looking for an assistant for Gary Haymond for the treasurer duties.

AM Rotary will celebrate its 25th anniversary on January 14 and there will be a big celebration, probably an evening dinner-dance. The planning committee includes Brad Langguth, Deb Galbraith, Deb Pullen Van Aucken, Tom and Ann Langenfeld, Dave Parsons (who will chair), Nenu Piragine and Vernette Knapp.

Larry Freeman has announced that he will be retiring from Rotary because of his heavy travel schedule. He has been a Rotarian for 25 years and a member of the AM club for the past 11 years. We wish Larry happy travels!

Roger Christian said we’d also need to find a new volunteer to take Larry’s place doing one week of dishwashing per month. See Roger if you can take this club service activity on.

PROGRAM

Casey Cook asked several new members to talk a little about themselves.

Tom Langenfeld: Tom and Ann met the first time when he was teaching high school in Storm Lake and Ann was one of his students. About 3 ½ years later when Ann was home from college they met again in a local gym and started dating.

Tom grew up in Olwein and vividly remembers the day in 1968 when Olwein and Charles City were badly damaged in an F5 tornado. The tornado wiped out the south side of his high school. The whole summer was involved with cleaning up after the storm.

What Tom especially enjoys about Rotary is having a good breakfast and volunteering for Rotary sponsored projects. He was first introduced to Rotary when his daughter, Katy, volunteered to go to Xicotepec and found it life-changing. Later Katy was awarded a Rotary grant for her university engineering project, Bridges for Prosperity, to build bridges in remote Nicaraguan villages.

Tom is the director for test development for the Workforce/ Work Keys program at ACT. His unit builds tests, puts forms together and publishes materials for the program, then assesses feedback on the program.

Shelby Colwell: Shelby drives in from Cedar Rapids every Tuesday morning. She works for the Boy Scouts and has an office in Cedar Rapids where she particularly likes working with volunteers.

Shelby grew up in Hudson by Cedar Falls. She got involved with the Boy Scouts by chance after working a year with Americorps during flood recovery. A family friend took her resume and the job at Boy Scouts came up shortly after that.

Shelby loves to hike, camp and play golf. She just got back from an Estes Park, CO camping trip. Perhaps her favorite camping spot was on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan

Shelby is engaged to be married to a young man who works for Boy Scouts in Wisconsin. They are currently trying to decide where to live after they are married. (We vote for here!)

Deb Ockenfels: Deb has always had special relationships with animals—not always good ones. Years ago their son had an iguana who lived 13 ½ years and weighted more than the dog. The iguana rode on Deb’s shoulder to the vet one time to get its claws trimmed. The iguana took one look at the vet’s assistant and managed to take a bite out of Deb’s face. A lady who came in to the vet’s office while Deb was bleeding away in the waiting room asked why she’d come to a vet to get stitched up.

Right now the Ockenfels household consists of 3 horses, a barn cat, and 2 house cats, and a fish tank. (And John and Deb, of course.) Deb says all the animals are doing fine, but a lot of the farm equipment is breaking down.

Deb grew up in Oxford, IA. One fond memory is that during the summer her grandmother would live with them and Deb would ride her horse bareback around town while her mom and grandmother would walk.

Deb met John when she was still in a playpen. His dad and Deb’s mom worked for John’s uncle in a freight office. John would come down with his dad on occasion and they would see each other in the trucking company office. It took many years before they would start dating, but they had a wedding date set only 3 weeks after they started dating.

Casey will do “what jazzes you up” with the remaining new members at a later meeting.

July 2 was the first meeting as President for Casey Cook. He is a fan of history and will try to share little known historical facts. He mentioned that both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on July 4, 1826 when Adams was 90 and Jefferson 83. Jefferson was Adam’s first vice-president by virtue of coming in 2nd in the vote count. The relationship was contentious because they were philosophically very different. They learned to appreciate each other over time, but it goes to show that they were both humans before they were icons.

Everyone owed a buck for the great Polio+ article in The Wall Street Journal. It pointed out that those participating in eradication in Pakistan are heroes because there are people losing their lives over polio eradication. Randy also pointed out that John McKinstry was pictured in the paper with a group that went to Joplin, MO to help with tornado damage repairs. Bryan Clemons was pictured handing out an award. Roger Christian was on the radio. Jim Swaim announced to a group of social service program directors that he plans on retiring soon.

See Deb Dunkhase if you would like to sign up for handling programs for a month.

The club is setting up a series of apprentices. Shelby will be apprenticing with Deb Dunkhase to help with programs. If you are interested in apprenticing with Jack for Sgt-at-Arms, Elaine for Club Secretary or Gary for the Treasurer position, please let Casey know soon.

Casey presented an award to Vernette Knapp that was received at the International Conference in Lisbon. She was nominated by the District for the Spouse Partner Service Award for exemplary humanitarian service through Rotary, and she was one of the people given this prestigious award.

Karen Franklin indicated that the IC Noon Club will be sponsoring the new downtown program. Right now just city staff are involved, but Nancy Quellhorst would like to raise the visibility of Rotary by having Rotarians present at city events to help answer questions for visitors. The Noon Club will pay for vests or shirts to help identify Rotarians as ambassador volunteers. There will be an orientation at the end of July or early in August. Contact Karen Franklin to sign up.

The Ockenfels had a great time in Lisbon. They noted that the International Conference will be in Sydney next year and there will be a large delegation from District 6000. Planning for a block of rooms at a hotel and special district activities are already under way.

PROGRAM

Casey decided to do something special for his first meeting and invited all past presidents from this and other clubs who were present to answer the question about what was the most memorable moment in their presidency.

Jean Bartley: We celebrated the club’s 20th anniversary at Brown Deer during her presidency.

Nancy Pacha: Rotary centennial year happened at the tail end of her presidency, and the conference was in Chicago where we had a great attendance. People from Xicotepec also came to that meeting, and also visited Iowa City, as did a variety of international guests.

Brad Langguth: went to Calgary for International and they had a great time there with their kids.

Peggy Doerge: The year she was president all 4 IC clubs had women presidents.

Jim Peterson: His was the first year of everyone being a Paul Harris Fellow as a result of a points swap meet.

Karen Franklin: She fondly remembers the International conference in Birmingham, England and how different it is attending as a president compared to going just as an individual member.

Pam Ehly: She spent her first board meeting looking at the budget and realized that we had let spending get out of control. That was fixed during her year, and we have also had great member growth over this past year.

Dave Parsons: was the first non-IC Noon Club appointed president. They discovered actually later on in his presidency that he was not legal because he never was a director first. His was the first year after the vote to allow women and it was fun starting to adjust everything from membership to the song books to be gender-neutral. Our first woman member was Mary Oxford.

John Ockenfels: noted that his nervousness about taking the presidency was quickly overcome because everyone chips in and makes the job a breeze. John also noted that we have a high percentage of past presidents still active in the club—very unusual compared to other clubs. It is a good indication of what a positive and productive group we continue to be.

Gary Haymond: remembered the Brisbane convention and his whole family found it the best trip of their lives. He discovered that being president is all about getting out of way and letting the club run itself.

Nenu Piragine: was president of her club in Argentina. Her father became a Rotarian when she was 9 years old so grew up with Rotary. She was the first woman in her club and its first woman president. She found it memorable attending the 2005 international conference in Chicago.

Mike Messier started his year at the international conference in Chicago. He echoed others that being president is a terrific way to become educated on Rotary. The most significant activity was the introduction of community grants in his year.

Randy Willman: This club is about relationships. You get to know everyone a little better by serving as president.

Chris Knapp: Buenos Aires was the location of the international conference. He met someone there who had actually helped Pete move an ambulance to Honduras. Small world! When Chris needed to take a break from his presidency to help Pete get home from Honduras after a stroke he was gratified that the Club went on just fine.

Deb PVA: She was president at the turn of the century when everyone was worried that there would be problems. Nothing bad happened. She attended the Singapore Conference and got to know the Pachas really well because that was also the year Gary was President of the Noon Club.

Larry Freeman was president at West Liberty, but t was not a great experience because the president before and after him both got transferred and he ended up with three terms.

Rotarians in the News: Casey Cook, Myrene Hoover, and Nenu were in the news this past week.

Announcements include: There will be no regular Tuesday morning meeting next week on June 25. Instead members are encouraged to attend the Year Ender Celebration beginning at 6:00 PM at the Old Brick Arch Winery in West Branch that evening. Tickets are $20. Mike Messier reported that the golfing outing numbers reflect approximately the same net and gross as last year. Gary and Nancy Pacha and John and Deb Ockenfels are attending the 2013 Rotary International Convention in Lisbon, Portugal.

Happy Bucks were celebrated with $30 collected in the hats today.

Program: Melanie Berry, Staff member at the Free Medical Clinic shared her experience as a member of the Group Study Exchange (GSE) 2013: Iowa 6000 to Chile 4340. She was one of four Iowans that spent 3 weeks in Chile. They presented to approximately 19 of the 64 local Rotary clubs, stayed with host families, and toured local groups impacted by the work of Rotary including a school for students with challenges, a hospital, the police academy, and government. She expressed sincere thanks to the Chilean people for their warm welcome and outstanding hospitality as well as to the Iowan Rotarians for making this experience possible. She presented 2 Chilean Rotarian club flags to President Pam Ehly.

Program: Mark Patton introduced Mike Quinlan, head of Hope House, Coralville. Hope House is a halfway house residential confinement facility operated by the Iowa Department of Correctional Services where residents are ordered to spend time under supervision. The facility houses three types of residents -- parole work releases, OWI continuums and probationers. Mike also supervises the Johnson County Work Crew, sponsored by Americorps. The Hope House residents and the Americorps volunteers provide critical manpower to the surrounding municipal communities, nonprofits and festivals. In 2012, these groups provided nearly 14,000 labor hours. Examples include renovations at Old Brick, unloading Christmas trees for the Optimist club, pulling weeds, setting up for festivals, transporting food for local food banks, and putting up Christmas lights along the Coralville Strip.

Called to order by President Pam Ehly. Shelby Coldwell, new member was introduced by Bryan Clemons. He said they met when he got a grassroots check for the Boy Scouts a few years a ago and they came into contact.

President Pam told us this was Rotary International Magazine month. With that in mind she said the first magazine was published in Germany in about 1568. Today, the AARP magazine is the most widely circulated.

Program: Charlie Miller was introduced by Roger Christian. He described his desire to establish the Iowa Space Science Center Initiative . He travels around with a small personal planetarium with the goal of establishing a permanent planetarium in Iowa City. He gave 8 reasons why it should be created:

1) Popular destination

2) Special learning environment

3) Facilities will be solid science, not just a fad

4) It would promote the story of James Van Allen, Iowa’s most famous scientist

5) It would serve schools

6) It could be the anchor for a new generation of science centers

7) It would serve a part of the state which is underserved at this time

He was seeking financial and logistical support for the creation of a new planetarium.

President Pam Ehly introduced the theme of our meeting as the power of play and the influence of play on literacy. It has been found that children’s literacy is encouraged by the provision of enriched environments. She also explained the meaning of a term that was unfamiliar to many of us: “literacy objects” are anything with print J

Jack Cameron introduced our guest: Annetta, our Norwegian Rotary exchange student. Annetta remarked that she was happy because she had just returned from visiting with her family from Norway in the Key West, Florida area.

Regarding the silent auction for the District Meeting, items to be sold at auction are needed. Let Pam Ehly know.

Casey announced that the next Can Do meeting will be at 7:30 in the morning at Brueggers.

Mike Messier suggested that members participate in Meals on Wheels.

Mark Patton reminded the club that the Month Opener will be at Donnelly’s on Monday, April 1. He also informed us that on April Fool’s Day, there is no truth in the Iowa State daily newspaper! For example, one year, the paper reported that Iowa was to be named the pineapple capital of the world, and a few days later, representatives from Dole Pineapple showed up in town!

Happy Bucks Donations and Why:

Jack Cameron, for the tragic loss of the ISU basketball game; Casey Cook, for U of I women’s basketball team and for tonight’s game, and $61 for Casey’s birthday; Liz Nichols, $20 for her birthday (today!), for youth exchange application from a young lady from Italy (Liz also requested that the club members try to help locate a host family for next year); Peggy Doerge, for the beauty of Sunday’s snow; Connie Pestotnik, for dinner with a friend with whom Connie used to have marathons sewing costumes for shows; Ron Logsdon, for the safe return of the kids from Xicotepec; Pam Ehly, for great meals at wonderful restaurants in Chicago; and Frank Juvan, for a wonderful visit in Naples, Florida.

The Iowa Children’s Museum: The Power of Play:

Pam introduced Deb Dunkhase and Jill Frantz who presented on the Iowa Children’s Museum at the Coral Ridge Mall and the “Power of Play.” Deb, a fellow ICAM Rotarian, is director of the museum and Jill is the development coordinator. Visitors to the museum find that it is full of creativity, a love of learning, problem solving, innovation, and play. The museum is a place of service to serve children and their families.

Some aims of the Iowa Children’s Museum include: to prepare children for school and for life; to build family and memories; and to have fun while learning.

The Iowa Children’s Museum has continued growing since it opened. It has had 1.75 million visitors. In 2012 it had 160,000 visitors. On one “free” day when there was no admission charge, the museum had1900 visitors.

The museum has a $1.3 million annual budget of which 55% is earned income and 45% is contributed income. The aim is to maintain the museum’s existence over time.

A family can purchase an annual family membership for $100 per year. Currently 800 families are enrolled. Sponsors provide free memberships based on need. The ICM Student Enrichment Scholarship Fund helps schools bring kids to the museum on field trips.

Children’s Museum: Some Upcoming Activities:

The American Girl Fashion Show, a fundraiser, will be held Friday, April 5th and 6th at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts. 135 girls, each carrying her American Girl doll, will be the models and 750 people will be in attendance. 23 girls who have been recommended by their principals will receive a scholarship to the event, be a guest model, receive a doll, and bring all the guests they want.

Celebration of the Young Child, Saturday, April 13, 2013: a legislative breakfast workshop on early childhood issues. Dan Wardell of IPTV, and a superhero to the preschool set will be there.

In a renovation beginning Friday, April 5, the City Grocery Exhibit (with a farmers’ market) will have some transformation. This is a kid-sized grocery store where children have fun while they experience some of the classifying and sorting that needs to be done by the shopper. Many “foods” are packaged with bilingual (English-Spanish) labels describing the place of origin. There is a checkout counter with conveyor belt, a cash register and a payment keypad. The children use the keypad to select the denominations of cash they would use to pay for their groceries.

Deb’s involvement with the museum began in 1999 when her husband offered her to Dr. Skogstad to be the director of education, and this has evolved to Deb becoming the museum’s executive director. In 1997, Deb was awarded a National Science Foundation grant at the University of Iowa.

Come and Play Golf with Jill will be held Friday, June 28 at Finkbine Golf Course to help support the Children’s Museum. This fundraiser is in need of sponsors.

Notion to Motion is an exhibit about vehicles and transportation that correlates the cars on the track and making peace on the road of life.

Childrens’ Museum: Some Comments from Club Members:

Jim Swaim praised the museum because it is accessible to all children in the area and it is really here to serve all children in the area.

Nan Mercier shared her appreciation the fact that the museum has exhibits appropriate for all ages of children. Some examples include: upstairs is a preschool suite, 12 year olds play in the train room right along with little kids, and Take Flight” is for 8 – 12 year olds.

Some Options at the Museum:

The museum is available for group meetings, birthday parties, and for overnight camps.

Volunteer Opportunity at the Museum:

Volunteers are needed to run the grocery store. Anyone interested can e-mail Deb Dunkhase.

A Word to the Wise:

“With a playful attitude you can take something and do anything with it.”

Pam read a thank you letter from Reading with our Future Fans for the children’s literary development.

Brian Adamec transferred from the Iowa City Noon Club back to his original club.

Lots of make-ups.

Announcements:

--Pat Schnack announced how proud she was to be a Rotarian due to the work at Xicotepec (thank you Jim Peterson). She remembered how it started by the building of a school 10 years ago (she “cried most of the week”) and it has grown. She is hoping for a library in that school someday.

--Interact: Kasra Zarei of West High held a MOST Benefit Music and Art Festival which helped raised more than $10,000 for Iowa MOST (cleft palette project). He thanked everyone for coming and supporting the event.

--Need host families for the coming year.

--Casey reported the Los Angeles Mexican Dance Troupe in Coralville (all you saw was Hispanics and Rotarians) was well-received.

--Need scribes for May and onward; please sign up.

--Need volunteers for the Foundation Golf Tournament.

--Downtown 10,000 Villages store will hold a meeting on April 15 at 7 p.m. at the ICPL.

--Chris Knapp reminded the group of the upcoming District conference which will have a couple of past International presidents there; conference will recognize Youth efforts and will be Youth directed; golf event is Thursday and conference starts at 9 a.m.

--Liz mentioned that she was having cataract surgery; her phone number is 331-5923 if you need to contact her regarding hosting an exchange student.

--Nora Garda and Shari Stevens were introduced by Casey (money from Happy Bucks are going to them) regarding Iowa Dance Festival (been doing it for 7 years) on April 27th. The vision is to take the local dance talent and share it with the wider community. $8 admission for the Festival (free tickets to kids in need).

Lots of Happy Bucks: $20.05 was donated Peggy from the glass bottles from Can Do; Tom also donated $6 from the glass, $25.05 from Dick from the same project.

Jim Peterson told a story about Xicotepec: his second trip there he was meeting with their “PTA” and asked what they would like to see happen if they lived in a world where anything is possible (and the first parent said they don’t live in that world).

What Jazzes You Up: Larry was asked about the importance of reading. He indicated he read technical articles to keep up with technology (replacement of computers, replacement of Windows 2000 to Windows 8). He reads most of it on line. He grew up in South Dakota on a farm which had milking cows (milked by hand); grew corn and oats. He had hayfever so he could not continue on the farm. He went to a one room country school with about 2 in each grade with a blackboard (their technology). There were 16 in his high school graduating class. The most important thing he learned in grade school was to be a teacher. He was editor of the high school newspaper; they had one electric typewriter but he could type faster on the manual typewriter.

President Pam Ehly opened the meeting by reviewing the District Conference.

Nan Mercier spoke on recognitions at District Conference: Vernette Knapp District Governor (non-Rotarian Spouse) for the many hours donated to youth work, she was awarded the Youth Service award. Pat Schnack was recognized for receiving Paul Hellwege Guardians of Integrity Award. John Ockenfels recognized our club as the “damn best club” and Chris Knapp was recognized for his dedication to the youth exchange work. The Trustees of the Foundation recognized Jim Peterson for work for the Foundation worldwide (only 150 given worldwide each year). Congratulations to all.

Tom Novak and Dave Parsons were recognized as Rotarians in the News.

Lots of Happy Bucks: we have lots to be thankful for.

Nenu introduced the five member Chilean team visiting our district. President Pam handed each a banner from our club to take home. John introduced his Chilean members. He is the CEO of a English school there. Javiera (from Rotary Penalolen) spoke about her club’s activities including Horsetherary, Milk Bank, and a mentally disabled home. She is a English teacher. David Gonzalez is from Santiago; there are five million people in Santiago (17 million in the entire country). He is also a teacher (works in two different schools). Cecilia’s father and brother are miners. She is an elementary teacher of English in a school with social problems from many Latin American countries. She works with many Peruvian families who are living in poverty in Chile. She is from Huelen Rotary Club area (not a member). The Club tries to provide a solar panel for each class. Luis lives about an hour from Santiago in Meliplla; he is a lawyer. They do not have juries, but have three judges instead. Lots of agriculture there. He is also the attorney for a neighboring city. He is a member of the Melipilla Club.

They finished the presentation by singing the Chilean Rotary anthem.

Casey stepped in for Pam to thank the group and tell them of the book which will go to a local elementary school.

President Pam Ehly opened the meeting and we sang “Reveille” from the Rotary song book.

Visiting Rotarians and Guests: Jacob Yarrow and Erin Donohue, speakers; Shelby Colwell, BSA, guest of Bryan Clemons; Kermit Sheker, Iowa City Noon; David Johnsen, Iowa City Noon; Janis Perkins, guest of Jim Peterson; and Annette, our Rotary exchange student. Janice Perkins plans to open a 10,000 Villages fair trade store in Iowa City and needs a diverse set of volunteers to help initiate the project. Jim Peterson will bring materials to a future meeting.

Vote to Amend Bylaws: To revise the club’s bylaws, an oral vote was taken. The “ayes” had it and the bylaw revision was ratified. The revision will be sent to the Iowa Secretary of State.

New Members: We celebrated two new members: Vernette Knapp, who was described as having been a “Rotarian in spirit and now in actuality;” and Dick Heber, who described this as “the best club in the state!” Vernette’s sponsor is Roger Christian and her Rotarian spouse is Chris Knapp. Dick’s sponsor is Sue Cronin.

Announcements:

Two Rotarians are needed to volunteer on March 30 to work with the Interact Clubs for Many Hands Make Light Work project.

The Can Do sign up sheet is available for members to volunteer for the month of April.

Pat Schnack invited Rotarians and their families to provide housing for the Dance Folkloric group that will be here from Mexico from April 7 – 10. Pat is the contact person.

The Dance Folkloric will stage a performance at 7:30 on Sunday, April 7, at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts.

Jim Swaim requested donations of nice clothing for the UAY Clothing Drive that will be set up at the parking ramp on March 13.

Many Happy Bucks: Dave Parsons shared his wife’s recent quote: “God, I love this town!” in response to the wealth of live performances available in our area, especially through Hancher. Tom Novak reported that the Iowa Most fundraiser held at West High raised $3000. Nancy Pacha expressed her deep appreciation for Elaine Shalla’s outstanding efforts in arranging for Nancy to be with her mother who had suddenly become seriously ill in Charlotte, NC. Jim Peterson praised Pat Schnack for her 11years of participation in the Xicotepec, MX project and trip.

Program:

Deb Dunkhase introduced two speakers from Hancher: Jacob Yarrow, the program director and Erin Donahue, the education program director.

In the current interim between the destruction of Hancher Auditorium in the flood of 2008 and until a new auditorium is built, the entity’s programming and performances are now called simply “Hancher” rather than “Hancher Auditorium” or “Hancher Performances.”

The new building will be completed in 2016, and the plan is for good art to continue even now before the building is complete. Yarrow is on the lookout for artists with the human approach who explore the human condition, to help the self to really explore “What do I think about that?” He wants artists who are not so much one shot wonders but who are doing something special next, who are open to new expression. The desire is to engage the community, to raise awareness, to create empathy through artistic experience, and to explore cultures beyond the dominant Iowa City culture. Yarrow wants to position the performing arts at the center of the academic life of the university, to bring things with deep content. This is already happening, faculty in social work, engineering, nursing, rhetoric, and law have performers visit class to launch discussion.

Because Hancher is now using up to fourteen different (and smaller) venues for performances, artists are able to do much more intimate work than in a large auditorium.

Donahue spoke about educational projects including family outreach that Hancher is doing, for example, the SPOT Program which provides one week of activities for four communities, working with kids and their schools. They presented “Word Became Flesh,” a work about a single dad in an African American community, and much to the surprise and delight of the performers, the children begged the group to stay!

Another project is “Any Given Child,” analyzing K-8 arts education in cooperation with the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and with our Pam Ehly of the ICCSD.

President Ehly reminded Board Members of the Board Meeting Thurs., Feb. 28

Community Service Awards Eve – Tues., Feb. 26. Ok to bring a bottle of wine to share. No morning meeting.

Can Do! Ron Logsden asked people to sign up to “person” the Can Do! Trailer at Hy-Vee (1st Ave) on March 2 – 3. Volunteers will be paired with students from Interact.

Mark Patton asked for 2 volunteers to help with “Many Hands Make Light Work” Contact Mark.

Casey Cook talked about a Compeer program “The Sound of Friendship” which will take place on Sat. March 2 at 6:30 p.m. at St. Andrews Church. Dan Knight, Kol Shira and Spontaneous Combustion will perform and dessert will be served. Casey sold all of the tickets he had on hand ($20/each).

Mark Patton and Andreas Soemadi discussed the Bowling for Kids Sake event this Saturday and asked us to donate to match pledges.

Program:

Our own inimitable and intrepid interviewer, Casey Cook, once again hosted his “What Jazzes You Up?” program. His victim, or, rather, his guest, was the never-one-to-be-shy Mark Patton. Their banter provided insight as well as laughter to start our morning. First question “Tell us about the house you grew up in…” Mark explained that he grew up in a hotel! It had been a hotel but then was moved (physically moved from the town of Eller) into the country. So, the hotel was now located on a farm. The farm, he said, is 90 miles west of Iowa City.

Mark said that he started out to become a pig farmer, but, the pigs couldn’t hold up their end of the conversation! So, he went on to work with people (now as Executive Director of Habitat for Humanity.) It was interesting to note that many of the homes (about 2/3) built by H H are sold to immigrant families. Mark said that they always pay their mortgages on time unlike some of the American families.

It became obvious that Mark’s devotion to service and to helping people started early. His father was on the County Board of Supervisors. As such, his father supervised the County Poor Farm. Mark spent a lot of time working on the farm with people deemed the lowest and most disenfranchised of humanity.

Mark was the 4th of 5 children. He also had 3 step siblings when his dad remarried after death of his mother and sister.

Mark still has a farm in Wilton. His wife, Emily, a Physicians Assistant, wanted chickens, so they bought some chickens. Apparently, the chickens have cost more time and money than they ever expected. But, they do provide plenty of eggs (which Mark brings to Rotary and sells @ $2.50/dozen).

Mark and his wife have 3 children: Amanda, age 30, in NYC; Nathan, next, commutes to Chicago from here on the Megabus, works for Deloitte Touche; and Luke who lives in Baltimore. “The kids all wanted OFF the farm!”

A big thanks to Mark who shared his unvarnished personal history. His humor and many touching life stories made today’s program one to remember.

President Pam Ehly opened the meeting and to introduce us to the idea of Literacy Initiative asked us the meaning of the word “literature.”

Pam introduced and honored Ann Bell who is the founder of Reading With Our Future Fans (RWOFF), a non-profit organization that makes books about college sports widely available to beginning readers. Ann is a retired teacher who taught at Grant Wood Elementary School in Iowa City. This is a grassroots non-profit organization that has received many grants and awards. Currently, books are available that have been written based on sports at the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, and at the University of Michigan. Ann’s ultimate dream is to provide books that correspond with each of the NCAA schools.

Guests and Visiting Rotarians: Jack Cameron introduced several visitors including our club’s outbound exchange student, Connor Henry , along with his parents, Jim and Chris Henry. Connor will spend next year as a student in South Korea.

Rotarians in the News: Both Dave Parsons and Deb Dunkhase were in the news this past week.

Announcements include: Mike Messier reported that the annual Johnson County Community Foundation golf outing will be held on May 23. Volunteers will be appreciated. Our own John Ockenfels will be District Governor in 2014-2015 and because the district conference will be held here in 2015, assistance of club members will be needed. Mark Patton requested volunteers to assist with “Many Hands Make Light Work.” Chris Knapp asked that members bring shoes, particularly children’s shoes, to donate and send to South Africa. It is planned to send 4000 pairs of shoes.

Pam Ehly reminded us that each month the money collected from Happy Bucks goes to a community organization. Sometimes there is a specifically designated recipient, such as last month when our collection of $400 went to the Mexican orphaned children’s dance group, Ballet Folklorico Los Angelitos, which will be performing at the District 6000 convention on April 12.

Happy Bucks were too many to keep up with! This is a happy club! Some causes for all this happiness: Sue Cronin’s grandson turned one; Connie Pestotnik attended Nathan Carterette’s popup piano concert at the Englert; Mike Messier liked it that both Iowa State men’s and women’s basketball teams are at the Big Dance; Pam Ehly was happy to be able to park downtown because of spring break.

Program: Deb Dunkhase introduced John Kenyon, the executive director of Iowa City UNESCO, City of Literature organization. UNESCO is the “United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.”

In 2004, UNESCO started the Creative Cities network. The city of Edinburgh, Scotland volunteered to write the criteria for inclusion in the network if Edinburgh could be named to the network.

Iowa City was designated a UNESCO City of Literature in 2008. It is the third city in the world, after Edinburgh, Scotland, and Melbourne, Australia, to receive this honor. Three more cities: Dublin, Ireland; Reykjavik, Iceland; and Norwich, England have also been designated in the past several years.

In addition to Cities of Literature, there are six other designations as part of the Creative Cities network: Crafts and Folk Art, Fim, Design, Media Arts, Gastronomy, and Music. Another American city, Santa Fe, New Mexico, has been named a UNESCO City of Crafts and Folk Art.

Christopher Merrill of the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program was instrumental In Iowa City’s designation as a City of Literature. He wrote a 75 page dossier showing why Iowa City should be designated.

It is the intention of the Creative Cities network to create creative hubs and socio-cultural clusters so that cities can collaborate with or creatively “steal” ideas from one another. Some examples are: author exchanges, the “benches” program of park benches dedicated to various authors possibly having audible readings of the authors’ work available at each bench. Through these collaborations it is also hoped that international partnerships in creative industries will be developed.

Cities are recognized for excellence in their given areas based on: heritage/legacy, current offerings, and future leveraging of the designation – would this designation help the city build on its heritage, current offerings to continue and expand its quality creative work?

The Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature has sponsored several local programs including: One Book Two Book; Children’s Literature Festival (writing by and for children – and thanks to Deb Dunkhase and Pam Ehly – 900 ICCSD kids submitted pieces about “I had a dream,” and 21 were invited to read theirs at a banquet); UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day; the Iowa City Book Festival (with writers from 30 countries); Paul Engle Day; Hawkeye Readers (Hawkeye football team reads to children in local schools); On the Fly; Little Free Libraries, “Book Marks” (book statues of public art); and a City of Literature app for iPhones (Google map of Iowa City area places of interest).

President Pam Ehly opened the meeting and we sang Happy Birthday to those who were present and have March Birthdays.

Paul Harris point swap…Bryan Clemons explained the point swap to get 100% for the club. A sheet was placed on each table to ask Rotarians if they wanted to donate points @ 100 per donation.

Community Awards dinner. Mark Patton was thanked for pulling together the details. Almost $13,000 was presented in a check by Can Shed.

March is Literacy Month.

Toby Hyde was welcomed as a new, transfer member.

Next week is the official vote for change of by-laws.

We need help to design a display for the April District Conference.

Can Do Trailer at First Ave. Hy-Vee was held this past week and Interact students were a great help.

IC Noon Rotary Club are offering $2500 scholarships who are a graduate of a Johnson County high schools and wants to study abroad.

Roger introduced Vernette Knapp.

Brad Langguth brought back a banner from Rotary Clubs in South Africa (Limpopo) and a T-shirt from a Rotary Club which was serving beer at a rugby game as a fundraiser.

Tom Novak announced $10 tickets for an Iowa Most evening (put on by high school students) this coming Friday.

Casey Cook attended the President-in-Training last week in Des Moines.

Lots of happy bucks including Bryan Clemons mention of the Myrene/H.D. Hoover map display at the Figge Museum in Davenport (maps there until June). Liz Nichols shared a story about going in the ditch (I guess she is happy to be alive!) off an S-Curve on Utah Ave.

Guest speaker was introduced by Frank Jovens. Patrick Barron is a consultant in the banking industry and teaches at the UI. He previously taught at the University of Wisconsin. He wrote regular columns for a Philadelphia newspaper. He spoke about the European Debt Crisis. He predicted that the Euro will fail due to structural problems. History: goal in creating the Euro was to unite Europe and its economy. There is the European Union (27 countries right now, and still growing). Some of those nations are not in the European Monetary Union (only 17 countries in it; Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece). Historically, it was only united under the Roman Empire and it has been attempted to be united under the gun in the past 200 years.

Latest push came after World War II in an effort to prevent another major war. France and Germany had fought three major wars in the last 150 years. The thought was that if they could unite the countries via the economy and currency, then it would help create a peace in the future. The effort has broken down trade and labor barriers within Europe.

The great debate is how to create one great political entity and is pushed by the European Federalists: today it is called the European Union. Charles DeGaulle fought the notion of a political union until he died. He was in favor of economic unity. Two things changed: the Soviet Union collapsed and DeGaulle passed away. Germany was then reunited. To allow Germany to be reunited, the Allies had to sign off and France required that they get rid of the Deutsch Mark. This paved the way for the Euro in 2000. England is not on the Euro; Switzerland and Norway are not in the European Union. He recommended a short book: “The European Union: A Very Short Introduction” by Pinder and Underwood; and “The Tragedy of the Euro” by Bagus.

He spoke about the Tragedy of the Commons: when no one person/group would take care of the common areas so it would ultimately be divided into private ownership so that it is better cared for. The board of the European Central Bank was set up to not allow buying sovereign debt. But it is made up of 17 countries, and they have been lending to Greece and Spain (violating the agreement) which has resulted in inflation.

His answer to the problem: Germany leave the European economy and reinstate the Deutsche Mark and tie it to gold (third largest gold reserves in the world).

Community Service Awards Eve – Feb. 26. Sign up for the count. OK to bring a bottle of wine to donate to your table. Cost $15. No morning meeting.

Shoes – goal is 3,000 pairs of new children-young adults’ shoes to take to the District Conference. Shoes will be sent to Africa. Anette Norsted, our youth exchange student, will be taking the shoes to the Conference April 12-13.

John Ockenfels mentioned that the grant application process has changed and anyone who wants to apply for a grant should attend a Grant Managers meeting this Saturday morning in West Liberty.

Nancy Pacha is leaving soon for Guatamala as a part of MOST – Miles of Smiles team to provide free clinic for patients with cleft palate.

Program:

Frank Juvan introduced the speaker, Don Racheter, who is a Political Scientist. Mr. Racheter is a Professor of Political Science in Pella and an adjunct Professor at the University of Iowa. He is the founder of the Political Science Association in Iowa and has authored many books. He has a long list of honors, some of which Frank mentioned. His topic was “What is the value of the electoral college?”

Mr. Racheter was a delegate to the Electoral College (EC) in 2004. He explained the history of the college and why it is still relevant.

Historically, the EC was a compromise at the Constitutional Convention. Some members wanted Congress to decide President and Vice President and some wanted a direct election by the people. During those days there was no good way to communicate, so the public didn’t know all the candidates (although they might know their local candidate). Many thought a republic would be better than a direct democracy. The EC is a checks and balances system.

The EC is comprised on one elector equal to the number of each states’ members of Congress – so even the smallest state would have at least 3 electors. Iowa, with 2 Senators and 4 Congressional representatives can have 6 electors. Supposedly, electors vote the way of their state, but, sometimes the elector goes against the will of the states’ voters and votes his/her own way!

In some states electors are selected by the legislature; in some states, by district.

The big objection to the EC is that there can be times when the EC votes for a President and Vice President which is not the same as the popular vote – or as the case in the election of 1800, there was a tie in the EC between Jefferson and Burr. In the end, Jefferson, won, of course. However, because of this, the 12th Amendment was instituted, by which the EC votes separately for President and VP.

Federalism is a unique concept created by the Founding Fathers. Federal and State have separate sovereign areas and some separate laws. Citizens are subject to both fed and state. Also, a person can appeal to both levels of government, starting at the state level and then, if not satisfied, can appeal to Federal level. Issues such as Civil Rights and/or voting rights might be examples of potential appeals.

If we did not have the EC, the largest 15 metropolitan areas could overwhelm the votes of the smaller, less populous areas of the country. Also, the candidates would not have much incentive to campaign in the smaller areas.

If a direct vote, we could have many small parties on the ballot. As it is, the system favors having the two major parties, with smaller parties having candidates and a voice, but not often winning.

There have been at least 4 occasions where there has been a problem in the election. The last of which was in 2000 Bush v. Gore.

The EC was established initially to deal with the problems of communication in 19th century as well as to buttress federalism and as an alternative to direct democracy.

Mr. Racheter pointed out that it is not just the Congress which is now very partisan. “ We The People” are also very partisan in this country right now.

Dean Carrington is in the process of up-dating the club’s By-laws. Elaine Shalla has distributed the proposed Amendments. Club members will vote on the proposed changes at the March 12th meeting.

Shoes – we are asking for members to bring shoes, particularly children’s shoes, to donate to Ministries which will be sending them to Africa

Pam Ehly mentioned that the money collected from Happy Bucks goes to a community organization each month. Sometimes there is a specifically designated recipient, such as last month when our collection of $400 went to the Mexican orphaned children’s dance group, Folklorico, which will be performing at the District 6000 convention on April 12.

Program

Frank Juvan introduced our speaker, Greg Morris, who is Equipment Manager for the UI Football team and has been for 25 years. Mr. Morris’s son, James, is a middle linebacker on the team.

Since there is a lot in the news lately about concussions caused by playing football (also in soccer), this was the focus of Morris’s talk.

He brought with him 3 different-style helmets and described the process of custom-fitting them to the head of each player. The different styles are for different fits and are lined inside with cushioning. Helmets are made of plastic and are constantly checked for cracks. They are manufactured in Rock Island.

He said that the helmets are tested by putting them on a simulated skull and hitting with an 8 lb. weight. Sensors tell the effects. Helmets are tested yearly.

Players have 2 helmets – a practice helmet and a game helmet—all custom fit by Morris himself. They also each have 4 jerseys (2 black, 2 white). Between the helmets, uniforms, shoes, shoulder pads, etc. each player wears over $1000-worth of equipment.

The cost for equipping the team comes to about $450,000 annually with $250,000 of that coming from Nike for using their products.

Regarding concussions. Mr. Morris stated that once a player has a concussion or is suspected of having one, he is tested by simple tests, such as saying the ABC’s backwards or being asked to remember a string of words. Once the player passes the test, he will be retested and allowed to come back, but gradually.

The team has $13 million-worth of injury insurance. But, the most important thing is to be very careful with the players.

Mr. Morris also brought some footballs. He said that he orders 12 dozen footballs minimum each year. If a football gets waterlogged, it has to be thrown out as it is no longer good. Balls that have been used have a red dot on them. They need to weigh 13 lbs. He also noted that players have favorite balls – kickers, quarterbacks have preferred balls.

Going on the road with the team means that Norris must bring all the equipment and clothes for 70 players who are 18-20 years old! In addition to players, there are 25 coaches, staff and video people who accompany the team.

This is a year-round job for Morris who began his career as a Certified Athletic Trainer, but, as s student, helped out in the locker room. His job is to equip and take care of players but also means controlling costs, maintaining inventory much of which is computerized, budgeting, travelling, and recycling used gear.